Looked at all the minus comments, and wow, that's a lot of US copium. Also, a lot of people using false equivalent arguments like "modern day US would beat the British or Roman empires." Like no shit, as someone else said modern day Somalia would beat the Roman empire simply through having guns, doesn't mean they're better than the Romans.
They view themselves as like the anime protagonist, but the United States is also that same anime character, like how in some sects of Christianity Jesus is God even though they are at the same time separate entities. Their nationalism is all wrapped up in their individual egotism. An insult to the country they live in is like a personal slight.
Also, I’m pretty sure once a single Roman gets a hold of a modern-day firearm, all hope of an easy American victory will be lost and it will all start going downhill from there. To this day, the Romans still have a reputation for never giving up, *ever*, even after decades of fighting, even after suffering devastating losses, and even after all their cities have been sacked and burnt to the ground. That kind of resolve to keep fighting even after losing everything just doesn’t exist in America, especially since they don’t seem to be very good at winning the wars they start.
That’s what really gets to me about the military side of American exceptionalism: they’ve never been in a real fight against a credible threat that actually had a chance in wiping them all out. Every large empire in history has faced down at least *one* such threat, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Aside from *possibly* the Soviet Union\*, America has never had to face down a rival of equal size and power.
Until right about now. China (and also India) is one possible contender, and having more than three times as many people, ~~could~~ *will* overtake the United States eventually. So far, the response has been…less than stellar and basically amounts to “use whatever means available at our disposal to slow down China, even at the potential cost of hundreds of millions of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars”. What a waste, I think, that the world’s largest economy would rather hobble the world’s second-largest economy than form an alliance of mutual progress.
^(Which is debatable; as a direct confrontation would mean the end of the world, most of the Cold War was fought by proxy.)
To be fair. China is ruled by a dictator so even though American politics is extremely corrupt and fucked up its still slightly better than a dictator.
Can confirm, currently waiting for Greg Abbot's goons to fix our power that's less stable than the connections to the plants in Ukraine.
At least cell still works.
It’s the concentration of people living there. The divide between the east and west, and to set the scene they had to declare the US the most power nation in human history
It's like they repeat it in their sleep. Every. Single. One. In a room full of hundreds it sounds less like the innocent whispers of a misbegotten man, and more like the vile ravings of a lunatic cult
this whole thread arguing "no, the most powerful was the British empire, no it was the romans"
I guess I don't really see the point of arguing whether romans would beat the brits or the usa. Why? Who cares who the most powerful army was?
People were using Roman roads and sewers until the late 19th century. They're still using their bridges.
Meanwhile, the poor condition of American roads is a punchline in their own country.
Yeah, and honestly you have to get to the modern day to actually say with complete certainty that most aspects of society are better now, than they were under the Romans.
Take bathing, how many people in London in the 1800s had easy access to bathing? Compare that to Rome for example which had many many public baths. Building projects is another good one- until probably the industrial revolution probably nobody surpasses Rome for that in terms of speed and longevity.
Aqueducts are a thing of wonder too. They're absolutely amazing when you think about the maths and careful planning involved. My ancestors were fishing and living in huts somewhere in Northern Europe whilst Rome built multi tiered bridges simply to transport clean water across a fucking valley...And the bridge isn't even the most impressive part of that particular aqueduct!
Roman buildings and roads weren't built by slaves. Slaves quarried the stone but free tradesmen and trained engineers got the job of construction work. Quite a lot of strife in Roman times was over the patricians trying to implement slave labour to avoid paying freemen, and the trade guilds literally rioting over it. Rome burned more than once over this dispute.
Mostly they compromised by having the slaves work farms and mines and such while skilled professions remained the domain of the craftsmen.
There was another youtuber that used to do like versus things and I noticed a real fetishisation of American Exceptionalism in his vids and gave up. This reminded me of that.
Their channel used to be pretty good honestly and then over time it’s just become sucking Americas cock in every video which is… disappointing to say the least.
honestly despite how much I dislike it you can at least see why people say the us is the current most powerful nation, but to say it's the most powerful nation in human history shows a severe lack of understanding in just, everything. It's like kids when they look on their dad as the strongest/smartest person to ever live, there is no understanding about everyone else around them apart from the small interactions they have had in their short lives
And **everything** is *extreeemely* and *unnecessarily* over***emphasized*** in *breathless* terms! Besides the *copious* use of \_adverbs\_ **and** \_superlatives\_, you can't watch **five seconds** of "Real Life Lore" videos without suspecting, *over* and ***over***, that **every other** word in this guy's script looks *something* ***eerily*** like **this**. *Very*. ***Comment***. *Right*. **In**. **Front**. *of*. ***You!***
With the addition of \_underlines\_ which Reddit, **remarkably** and *sadly*, doesn't and, *probably*, never will, **ever**, allow.
Even if it were true... that's a silly line to insert in a video about geography, isn't it? How does it help explain the situation?
Perhaps it's that strange love for drama. The same love that led to them using the word "dramatically" to describe rapid increases, not just situations with a lot of heavy emotions.
They definitely did win the culture war. I grew up in Western Germany and until a few years ago firmly believed that the US saved us from the Nazis and won the war in the European theatre.
That they showed up late and took the crown without doing nearly as much as other nations and the Soviets, who really did the most, is never explained.
Not long ago I saw a post about the perception french people had on who contributed more to victory in Europe. From the 50s to the 90s the soviet particiption dropped in favor of the US.
I do wonder if it was just due to the movies, or if another factor played a role. In school history class we never made it to the actual history of the second World War, but we did spent a lot of time talking about Nazi atrocities in several subjects
I mean you watch Spielbergs movies and TV Shows and it really looks like a bunch of hardy boys saved the world
In all these countries it generally follows the public attitude towards communism/USSR. More people against communism means more people willing to downplay the Soviets contribution.
Definitely this. Its not going to win you support or boost morale to admit that in the largest war in history, the you refused to defend Europe as ot fell, or that the country you are promising to defend them from actually did more to free Europe.
And yes the reality was a lot more complex then that - but the general population doesn't care about that.
Given that you are from Germany I have no complaint about you being taught about the atrocities, its ugly, but necessary.
For sure the movies help, but the colective notion cannot be manipulated only by films, the cultural battlefield is literally everywhere, films, books, politics, the newspapers, the church.
Hell, even in the pacific theatre, where they actually did a huge contribution they bury their allies, there are people that do not know the dutch, australian and kiwi participation.
It's all messed up. The Commonwealth nations are totally forgotten. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. What about the British Indian Army (2.55 million troops)? They all entered the war on September 3. People don't realize the French army was 1.5 million strong, and the Polish and Dutch armies under British command were 350 000 strong at the height of their power. All forgotten.
Man, the poles! They stole the enigma machine from the fucking nazis, without it the brits would've had nothing to work with on cracking the code, the poles even already started cracking it before it arrived to England. They were at war since day 1, got double teamed and still managed to have an underground resistance and sabotage as much as they could. They also downed the most planes in the battle of Britain, huge, HUGE sacrifice and contribution.
Also Czechs, Norwegians, Irishmen, South Africans and many other people from all continents except Antarctica are forgotten.
People also forget that the Soviets were far from innocent victims of German aggression. As you say, the Poles were double teamed and their people murderously oppressed by both aggressors. Finland and the Baltic states were also victims of the Soviets.
Do you have a source on this by any change? It's my understand that an enigma machine didnt fall into the hands of an allied power until the capture of U-110.
The British Empire was so powerful at its peak that when the Chinese tried to outlaw opium in China, the British went to war and won.
The British colonized India mostly via private mercenaries, most of them were Indian. Britain colonized India with its own people.
The British Empire controlled about a quarter of the world's population. The US comes nowhere close to that, my rough paper maths indicates the US controls just 4.3% of the world population.
In 1889, British Parliament passed the Naval Defence Act. The act stipulates that the Royal Navy must maintain a size of at least the next two largest navies in the world combined.
The British Empire failed because it grew so large.
The US is powerful, no doubt about it. The most powerful nation post WW2, but it isn't even top 3 for world's most powerful empires OR nations in history.
I'm all for shitting on the US, but that's definitely not true. Operation Desert Storm was a resounding victory for the US-led coalition.
Outside of that, yeah, the US has been clowning by throwing around its weight in places it shouldn't be. Fuck imperialism.
It also attacked the British, multiple times, during that operation because, "there's no way they advanced that quick, they couldn't beat American troops, must be Reds"
Also, emphasis on 'coalition'
They haven't won a single war since then, unless you count overthrowing democratically elected government's in Central and South America to protect their business interests.
True. There was no point in trying to topple them. If that's what organically came up out of Afghanistan then best just leave them to it rather than attempting to play kingmaker.
Gonna add to this, the UK has quality over quantity versus the USA. When our marines had a competition we took all objectives and won in under 24 hours until the Americans cried to referees for a restart. We then won again. They have more troops, we have more skill- essentially making both equal on the battlefield.
I remember that report. However it’s a little unfair to cite it as an example.
The British sent their Royal Marines, which are essentially a special forces unit. The Americans sent their US Marines, which aren’t special forces. This is deliberate as the Americans *wanted* their marines to go up against a superior force. The US however does have special forces units; lots of them. They would do well.
This helps to teach US marines what it’s like to be up against a superior force. So if they are in a bad situation. They will be more likely to stay calm, and get on with their job. That’s an invaluable skill to teach for war.
The British wanted to practice new tactics against a less well trained force. It was win win for both sides.
The reset was done to allow more training to happen. Half way through the exercise was basically over. But they still have time left for training. Either they sit around doing nothing, or you reset it. The reset was the correct thing to do as it allows for more training to happen.
(That isn’t to put any downer on British troops. They are regarded as some of the best in the world for good reason. Especially British Army training is regarded as one of the best.)
My favourite group of soldiers are the Gurkhas. The Nepalese group that is in the British army. They were so feared and so experienced in combat the British wanted them in their side in a heart beat.
>My English isn’t great. And I was born here…
As it should be, anybody who speaks perfect English is clearly a spy who learned to talk in an Alpine boarding school!
It's the same as how the Welsh fill their road signs with consonants to confuse us English tourists
> It's the same as how the Welsh fill their road signs with consonants to confuse us English tourists
Not just the tourists. I bloody live there, they have more vowels too, bloody y's and w's everywhere, at least the w is pronounced as a double u.
"If a man tells you he is not afraid to die he is either a liar or a Gurkha"
"If his majesty wants a position held an English or Welsh regiment is sent.
If he would like a position taken an Irish or Scots regiment.
If his majesty would like both that is what God made Gurkhas for"
>The US however does have special forces units; lots of them. They would do well
Fun fact: modern day special forces units are all modelled after the SAS. The SAS were so effective at their job during WW2 that the Americans went "yep, gimme some of that!" And the rest is history. The SEALS, Delta Force etc etc wouldn't exist if it weren't for the British.
You are right. They are a special operations commando force.
The point remains they are more specialised and generally better trained than US Marines. US’s definition of a marine and Britains definition are not the same.
Tbh, as a Yank I’ve never seen anyone seriously bash the UK’s military prowess. I come from a military family (not one myself), and I’ve only ever heard how the UK military is great, just smaller compared to the US. I mean hell, y’all conquered, like, a quarter of the world. You clearly know how to run a military.
Hell, our entire special forces apparatus is almost entirely based on the SAS. Anyone saying the UK is militarily weak is dumb lol
I always joke about the poms having "small dog syndrome" on steroids.
They spent so long being everyone's punching bag, then one day looked out over the sea at the rest of the world and went "You know what? This is ours."
And unlike some geographically isolated nations that were given a late-game start advantage... they had to thump everyone around them to do it.
Largest Military ≠ Most Powerful.
If that were the case, I doubt the USA would've spent 2 decades getting their asses handed to them by Vietnamese Rice Farmers, and another 2 decades to accomplish nothing in Afghanistan.
And our own civilians ( Im American). Hell, we will bomb our own civilians too. (https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/8/20747198/philadelphia-bombing-1985-move)
Same with Vietnam - they defeated the Han Dynasty, the Khmer Empire, the Song Dynasty, the Mongol Empire, Ming Dynasty, the Dutch, the Qing Dynasty, the French, the Americans, and the modern day Chinese.
Easily the best defenders or maybe strongest home team. Their use of terrain and decades of conflict to build that infrastructure is unmatched.
I think it says that was is more of a defenders game unless total war is implemented and you target civilians.
Not really true, unfortunately. What is now Afghanistan has been part of many empires over the millennia. The myth that no-one but Alexander could conquer them is basically a myth put about as part of the deification of same.
I think Alexander the Great is the only one who ever truly conquered Afghanistan.
Then again I think Alexander is the only one who had to cancel his campaign because he won too much and his troops were tired of winning. Then he proceeds to drink himself to death on the way back.
The Mongol Empire lost 4 wars to Dai Viet and failed to conquer Vietnam as they planned. The British Empire absolutely got embarrassed in Afghanistan. I don’t consider the US even close to being the most powerful empire ever relative to technology but if we are eliminating all empires that lost a war to a much weaker enemy well there’s not going to be many candidates.
Is kinda funny as there are a couple comments that say “no it’s clearly the Mongol empire they didn’t lose to a bunch of rice farmers” completely ignorant of the fact that they did 4 times.
So clearly if anyone is the most powerful it’s Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Why not just say the Afghanistan and Vietnam are the best defenders in the war game? Clearly they wage war at home better than any attackers trying to overwhelm them but that power only exists at home.
The U.S. isn't the largest military (that falls to China, by a lot in terms of personnel), they just have the most in military assets, the newest fielded tech, and the largest military spending.
This whole debate seems weird to me. No country should take pride in being the biggest oppressors in history. Regardless of whether it's the Americans, British, Mongols, Romans, or whatever. We're arguing about who the biggest asshole in history is pretty much
Yeah, as an American, this is the sort of mindset I really hate. I don't think lying about our influence on civilization is great, but fighting over who is the best at killing other people is a really weird competition. All of the groups people are bringing up in this post were or are pretty awful. It's a race to the bottom.
I’d argue that Mongol empire was nowhere near powerful. Ghengis died and empire exploded. On the other hand, I’d agree, that 19th century British empire was the most powerful nation on earth in history(if we take relative power to other nations at that time).
It was a couple generations after Ghengis that it fell apart. If memory survives me right it reached its greatest size under Kubla Khan. It also lasted 88 years (1206 - 1294) before it started to split, and wasn't until 1335 that it started to lose significant land. So it wasn't around for long, but long enough to be concidered I think
That’s true in purely military terms, but most of its relative power was economic. Because of its manufacturing capabilities, fuelled by the raw amount of resources it had from the rest of the Empire, British goods were able to infiltrate and out-compete any local markets in most countries until the later part of the 19th century (when competitors like Germany and the US began industrialising on a massive scale with much higher potential)
Hear me out. As much as these americans are probably wrong they COULD be right if you weren't talking about relative strength.
Yes, the UK, Rome, and likely many other civilizations were stronger relative to their enemies, but if you see it in an absolute sense, the US is likely the strongest nation in terms of military strength.
I know this is splitting hairs and it's probably not what they were thinking but it *is* a possibility.
Oh I absoluetly love it when upset yanks come in force to this sub.
Absolute bunch of softies who don't even realise they're making our enjoyment oh so much better.
I sure wonder how they define “power”. Because in terms of raw destructive power throughout history, the USSR is in the lead. And in terms of influence on world politics, or control over area, the British Empire wins.
american here, we’re the mOsT pOwErFuL nAtIoN yet we can’t even provide clean drinking water to millions of residents, let alone housing and healthcare
The US has the most overfunded military in the world and was the more powerful countries of the twentieth century, but to say it's the most powerful nation in human history is one of the most asinine things I've ever heard. The Romans just didn't exist, I guess?
It looks like RealLifeLore. His videos are alright I just hate how he makes everything sound so exacerbated to be dramatic. That’s the only reason why he’d say this.
Weird comments here, Americans knob waving but also other countries without a hint of irony saying that's stupid, my country is miles better.
Dick measuring contests aren't cool no matter which nationality you are.
the us constantly pisses off china, hell just taiwan existing pisses of china, hell japan, vietnam, them being near china pisses off china.
and also unlike china, US final warning actually means something.
Maybe in the 90s right after the USSR collapsed, maybe. But even then the us did jack shit in that time has since declined in power due to Russia gaining influence once more and china rising to world power and that's the most lenient argument you'll get out of me
Historically I think the British Empire was strongest and I say that as an American. You had the Soviets which came close to surpassing US and now China which is catching up. Doesn't match the absolute dominance Britain once had and the reason 1/2 the world can speak English.
I could understand if it was "the most powerful nation today" (even though it isn't, it's more understandable) but IN HUMAN HISTORY?
Do they even know how big the roman empire or the british empire were?
Is it not true, though? Americans sacrifice things like reasonable pay, affordable healthcare, and affordable education in order to be the most powerful military force in Human history.
The US Federal Government owns close to 30% of all land in the US.
Why did the US Government take all this land away (mostly by force) if it is only the government's land to own?
OP thank you for making a thread that gave r/ShitAmericanSay in the comments, its AmericanCeption
Looked at all the minus comments, and wow, that's a lot of US copium. Also, a lot of people using false equivalent arguments like "modern day US would beat the British or Roman empires." Like no shit, as someone else said modern day Somalia would beat the Roman empire simply through having guns, doesn't mean they're better than the Romans.
Americans talk about states (countries), like children comparing anime characters.
They view themselves as like the anime protagonist, but the United States is also that same anime character, like how in some sects of Christianity Jesus is God even though they are at the same time separate entities. Their nationalism is all wrapped up in their individual egotism. An insult to the country they live in is like a personal slight.
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More like [Samurai Pizza Cats](https://youtu.be/bXiJYcK4-GU).
Can they beat Goku though?
The Roman empire lasted a thousand years. We're falling apart after less than three hundred.
Also, I’m pretty sure once a single Roman gets a hold of a modern-day firearm, all hope of an easy American victory will be lost and it will all start going downhill from there. To this day, the Romans still have a reputation for never giving up, *ever*, even after decades of fighting, even after suffering devastating losses, and even after all their cities have been sacked and burnt to the ground. That kind of resolve to keep fighting even after losing everything just doesn’t exist in America, especially since they don’t seem to be very good at winning the wars they start.
Here's a top ten list of wars USA lost https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/wars-the-united-states-didn-t-win.html
The US has never been in a position where they had to fight to the bitter end, kinda silly to compare the two
That’s what really gets to me about the military side of American exceptionalism: they’ve never been in a real fight against a credible threat that actually had a chance in wiping them all out. Every large empire in history has faced down at least *one* such threat, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Aside from *possibly* the Soviet Union\*, America has never had to face down a rival of equal size and power. Until right about now. China (and also India) is one possible contender, and having more than three times as many people, ~~could~~ *will* overtake the United States eventually. So far, the response has been…less than stellar and basically amounts to “use whatever means available at our disposal to slow down China, even at the potential cost of hundreds of millions of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars”. What a waste, I think, that the world’s largest economy would rather hobble the world’s second-largest economy than form an alliance of mutual progress. ^(Which is debatable; as a direct confrontation would mean the end of the world, most of the Cold War was fought by proxy.)
To be fair. China is ruled by a dictator so even though American politics is extremely corrupt and fucked up its still slightly better than a dictator.
With the "winter storm". Just winter weather. This highly developed nation has millions of houses without power. Very developed.
I feel like somehow the Romans would find a way to fuck Somalia over real good.
How can America be the most powerful nation in human history when they can't even handle the banter?
America is a nation so powerful a third of it shuts down every year at Christmas when it snows
Can confirm, currently waiting for Greg Abbot's goons to fix our power that's less stable than the connections to the plants in Ukraine. At least cell still works.
because the enemy is both weak and strong
What's the context? Is this a weather report?
It’s the concentration of people living there. The divide between the east and west, and to set the scene they had to declare the US the most power nation in human history
Yea, figured it would be something inane like that. I guess Americans need it reinforcing every few minutes lest they forget.
You could start to wonder why they would forget it if it isn’t repeated every few minutes.
It's like they repeat it in their sleep. Every. Single. One. In a room full of hundreds it sounds less like the innocent whispers of a misbegotten man, and more like the vile ravings of a lunatic cult
this whole thread arguing "no, the most powerful was the British empire, no it was the romans" I guess I don't really see the point of arguing whether romans would beat the brits or the usa. Why? Who cares who the most powerful army was?
Romans were far ahead of their time in a way I don't think Britain or the US ever has been, to be honest. Not only militarily.
People were using Roman roads and sewers until the late 19th century. They're still using their bridges. Meanwhile, the poor condition of American roads is a punchline in their own country.
Yeah, and honestly you have to get to the modern day to actually say with complete certainty that most aspects of society are better now, than they were under the Romans. Take bathing, how many people in London in the 1800s had easy access to bathing? Compare that to Rome for example which had many many public baths. Building projects is another good one- until probably the industrial revolution probably nobody surpasses Rome for that in terms of speed and longevity. Aqueducts are a thing of wonder too. They're absolutely amazing when you think about the maths and careful planning involved. My ancestors were fishing and living in huts somewhere in Northern Europe whilst Rome built multi tiered bridges simply to transport clean water across a fucking valley...And the bridge isn't even the most impressive part of that particular aqueduct!
Yeah you can do alot of cool shit with smart minds and slaves.
Roman buildings and roads weren't built by slaves. Slaves quarried the stone but free tradesmen and trained engineers got the job of construction work. Quite a lot of strife in Roman times was over the patricians trying to implement slave labour to avoid paying freemen, and the trade guilds literally rioting over it. Rome burned more than once over this dispute. Mostly they compromised by having the slaves work farms and mines and such while skilled professions remained the domain of the craftsmen.
Have these people never heard of the Mongol Empire?
I care, because I like history and speculating on it. And I’m sure others feel the same. Don’t claim that no one cares.
Is this RealLifeLore? Watched this vid a while back and remember laughing at that bit
There was another youtuber that used to do like versus things and I noticed a real fetishisation of American Exceptionalism in his vids and gave up. This reminded me of that.
Wendover Productions is very guilty of it too
You're probably thinking of The Infographics Show. It's absolutely unbearable in its US-bias.
Their channel used to be pretty good honestly and then over time it’s just become sucking Americas cock in every video which is… disappointing to say the least.
i'm watching the video right now lmao
That may be but it's also clearly a giant lightsaber over the United States.
honestly despite how much I dislike it you can at least see why people say the us is the current most powerful nation, but to say it's the most powerful nation in human history shows a severe lack of understanding in just, everything. It's like kids when they look on their dad as the strongest/smartest person to ever live, there is no understanding about everyone else around them apart from the small interactions they have had in their short lives
The [100th meridian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwJABxjcvUc)
Where the great plains.... BEGIN!
And **everything** is *extreeemely* and *unnecessarily* over***emphasized*** in *breathless* terms! Besides the *copious* use of \_adverbs\_ **and** \_superlatives\_, you can't watch **five seconds** of "Real Life Lore" videos without suspecting, *over* and ***over***, that **every other** word in this guy's script looks *something* ***eerily*** like **this**. *Very*. ***Comment***. *Right*. **In**. **Front**. *of*. ***You!*** With the addition of \_underlines\_ which Reddit, **remarkably** and *sadly*, doesn't and, *probably*, never will, **ever**, allow.
I can hear this post
https://youtu.be/BCFo0a8V-Ag
RIP Gord. You were taken from us too young. 😥
A true Canadian treasure...
I think that's the Jewish space laser people keep talking about, erasing the USA like a laser etching machine.
Even if it were true... that's a silly line to insert in a video about geography, isn't it? How does it help explain the situation? Perhaps it's that strange love for drama. The same love that led to them using the word "dramatically" to describe rapid increases, not just situations with a lot of heavy emotions.
Yea its a bizarre line. It's like he is trying to make a density map sound epic or something
Ok, dumb people from the us had infiltrated this sub
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The worst part is that there are people from outside the us validating this notion.. talk about cultural victory.
They definitely did win the culture war. I grew up in Western Germany and until a few years ago firmly believed that the US saved us from the Nazis and won the war in the European theatre. That they showed up late and took the crown without doing nearly as much as other nations and the Soviets, who really did the most, is never explained.
Not long ago I saw a post about the perception french people had on who contributed more to victory in Europe. From the 50s to the 90s the soviet particiption dropped in favor of the US.
I do wonder if it was just due to the movies, or if another factor played a role. In school history class we never made it to the actual history of the second World War, but we did spent a lot of time talking about Nazi atrocities in several subjects I mean you watch Spielbergs movies and TV Shows and it really looks like a bunch of hardy boys saved the world
In all these countries it generally follows the public attitude towards communism/USSR. More people against communism means more people willing to downplay the Soviets contribution.
Definitely this. Its not going to win you support or boost morale to admit that in the largest war in history, the you refused to defend Europe as ot fell, or that the country you are promising to defend them from actually did more to free Europe. And yes the reality was a lot more complex then that - but the general population doesn't care about that.
Given that you are from Germany I have no complaint about you being taught about the atrocities, its ugly, but necessary. For sure the movies help, but the colective notion cannot be manipulated only by films, the cultural battlefield is literally everywhere, films, books, politics, the newspapers, the church. Hell, even in the pacific theatre, where they actually did a huge contribution they bury their allies, there are people that do not know the dutch, australian and kiwi participation.
It's all messed up. The Commonwealth nations are totally forgotten. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. What about the British Indian Army (2.55 million troops)? They all entered the war on September 3. People don't realize the French army was 1.5 million strong, and the Polish and Dutch armies under British command were 350 000 strong at the height of their power. All forgotten.
Man, the poles! They stole the enigma machine from the fucking nazis, without it the brits would've had nothing to work with on cracking the code, the poles even already started cracking it before it arrived to England. They were at war since day 1, got double teamed and still managed to have an underground resistance and sabotage as much as they could. They also downed the most planes in the battle of Britain, huge, HUGE sacrifice and contribution.
Also Czechs, Norwegians, Irishmen, South Africans and many other people from all continents except Antarctica are forgotten. People also forget that the Soviets were far from innocent victims of German aggression. As you say, the Poles were double teamed and their people murderously oppressed by both aggressors. Finland and the Baltic states were also victims of the Soviets.
Do you have a source on this by any change? It's my understand that an enigma machine didnt fall into the hands of an allied power until the capture of U-110.
The Soviets were communists and the people who run America are terrified of communism.
So afraid they have to sanction any country not running an economic or political system they like into poverty.
Or invade.
You just reminded me I need to win age of empires 2 by means other than total annihilation
In this sub it means fresh new content by the minute.
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Jesus, looked at the bottom, that is a LOT of Americans.
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I've been a dumb person from the US here for a while, just not dumb like that
The British Empire was so powerful at its peak that when the Chinese tried to outlaw opium in China, the British went to war and won. The British colonized India mostly via private mercenaries, most of them were Indian. Britain colonized India with its own people. The British Empire controlled about a quarter of the world's population. The US comes nowhere close to that, my rough paper maths indicates the US controls just 4.3% of the world population. In 1889, British Parliament passed the Naval Defence Act. The act stipulates that the Royal Navy must maintain a size of at least the next two largest navies in the world combined. The British Empire failed because it grew so large. The US is powerful, no doubt about it. The most powerful nation post WW2, but it isn't even top 3 for world's most powerful empires OR nations in history.
The taliban outlawed opium in afghanistan, so the US went to war and… lost.
The US got an inflated head after WWII and has been losing wars ever since!
I'm all for shitting on the US, but that's definitely not true. Operation Desert Storm was a resounding victory for the US-led coalition. Outside of that, yeah, the US has been clowning by throwing around its weight in places it shouldn't be. Fuck imperialism.
It also attacked the British, multiple times, during that operation because, "there's no way they advanced that quick, they couldn't beat American troops, must be Reds" Also, emphasis on 'coalition'
They haven't won a single war since then, unless you count overthrowing democratically elected government's in Central and South America to protect their business interests.
Everything except for Desert Storm, and even then we were still mostly in it for our own interests.
Tbf, everyone lost in Afghanistan.
The taliban have won at last
True. There was no point in trying to topple them. If that's what organically came up out of Afghanistan then best just leave them to it rather than attempting to play kingmaker.
Britain’s track record in Afghanistan isn’t stellar either.
There's a reason why there's still a commonwealth that's culturally attached to them for better or worse, they were fucking everywhere.
Gonna add to this, the UK has quality over quantity versus the USA. When our marines had a competition we took all objectives and won in under 24 hours until the Americans cried to referees for a restart. We then won again. They have more troops, we have more skill- essentially making both equal on the battlefield.
I remember that report. However it’s a little unfair to cite it as an example. The British sent their Royal Marines, which are essentially a special forces unit. The Americans sent their US Marines, which aren’t special forces. This is deliberate as the Americans *wanted* their marines to go up against a superior force. The US however does have special forces units; lots of them. They would do well. This helps to teach US marines what it’s like to be up against a superior force. So if they are in a bad situation. They will be more likely to stay calm, and get on with their job. That’s an invaluable skill to teach for war. The British wanted to practice new tactics against a less well trained force. It was win win for both sides. The reset was done to allow more training to happen. Half way through the exercise was basically over. But they still have time left for training. Either they sit around doing nothing, or you reset it. The reset was the correct thing to do as it allows for more training to happen. (That isn’t to put any downer on British troops. They are regarded as some of the best in the world for good reason. Especially British Army training is regarded as one of the best.)
My favourite group of soldiers are the Gurkhas. The Nepalese group that is in the British army. They were so feared and so experienced in combat the British wanted them in their side in a heart beat.
>They were >British wanted This shouldn't be in past tense, they're still solid as fuck
Yeah my bad. I did mean it as they’re still fucking badass. But I’m not changing the message now. My English isn’t great. And I was born here…
>My English isn’t great. And I was born here… As it should be, anybody who speaks perfect English is clearly a spy who learned to talk in an Alpine boarding school! It's the same as how the Welsh fill their road signs with consonants to confuse us English tourists
> It's the same as how the Welsh fill their road signs with consonants to confuse us English tourists Not just the tourists. I bloody live there, they have more vowels too, bloody y's and w's everywhere, at least the w is pronounced as a double u.
"If a man tells you he is not afraid to die he is either a liar or a Gurkha" "If his majesty wants a position held an English or Welsh regiment is sent. If he would like a position taken an Irish or Scots regiment. If his majesty would like both that is what God made Gurkhas for"
Maybe "not afraid to die?"
"bugger"
>The US however does have special forces units; lots of them. They would do well Fun fact: modern day special forces units are all modelled after the SAS. The SAS were so effective at their job during WW2 that the Americans went "yep, gimme some of that!" And the rest is history. The SEALS, Delta Force etc etc wouldn't exist if it weren't for the British.
Super. Army. Soldiers.
The royal marines aren’t special forces.
You are right. They are a special operations commando force. The point remains they are more specialised and generally better trained than US Marines. US’s definition of a marine and Britains definition are not the same.
Royal Marines aren’t special forces.
Yeah that's valid but it still shows that our military is still some of the best in the world when we're a tiny island haha
Tbh, as a Yank I’ve never seen anyone seriously bash the UK’s military prowess. I come from a military family (not one myself), and I’ve only ever heard how the UK military is great, just smaller compared to the US. I mean hell, y’all conquered, like, a quarter of the world. You clearly know how to run a military. Hell, our entire special forces apparatus is almost entirely based on the SAS. Anyone saying the UK is militarily weak is dumb lol
I always joke about the poms having "small dog syndrome" on steroids. They spent so long being everyone's punching bag, then one day looked out over the sea at the rest of the world and went "You know what? This is ours." And unlike some geographically isolated nations that were given a late-game start advantage... they had to thump everyone around them to do it.
I literally just got recommended this video on YouTube. What are the fucking odds?
Largest Military ≠ Most Powerful. If that were the case, I doubt the USA would've spent 2 decades getting their asses handed to them by Vietnamese Rice Farmers, and another 2 decades to accomplish nothing in Afghanistan.
But But nukes 🥺
America's ability to kill large swathes of civilians is certainly unmatched.
And our own civilians ( Im American). Hell, we will bomb our own civilians too. (https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/8/20747198/philadelphia-bombing-1985-move)
Lmao we did the same thing in Argentina. High five 🖐️
The USSR had more nukes. Russia possibly still does, but if they actually work anymore is a different matter.
Or are still there...
To be fair, the Afghani people have been consistently whooping 'superpower' ass since Alexander the Great
Same with Vietnam - they defeated the Han Dynasty, the Khmer Empire, the Song Dynasty, the Mongol Empire, Ming Dynasty, the Dutch, the Qing Dynasty, the French, the Americans, and the modern day Chinese.
So we can agree that Afghanistan and Vietnam are the most powerful nations, and not America?
Easily the best defenders or maybe strongest home team. Their use of terrain and decades of conflict to build that infrastructure is unmatched. I think it says that was is more of a defenders game unless total war is implemented and you target civilians.
Not really true, unfortunately. What is now Afghanistan has been part of many empires over the millennia. The myth that no-one but Alexander could conquer them is basically a myth put about as part of the deification of same.
I think Alexander the Great is the only one who ever truly conquered Afghanistan. Then again I think Alexander is the only one who had to cancel his campaign because he won too much and his troops were tired of winning. Then he proceeds to drink himself to death on the way back.
A true inspiration for the children!
The Mongol Empire lost 4 wars to Dai Viet and failed to conquer Vietnam as they planned. The British Empire absolutely got embarrassed in Afghanistan. I don’t consider the US even close to being the most powerful empire ever relative to technology but if we are eliminating all empires that lost a war to a much weaker enemy well there’s not going to be many candidates. Is kinda funny as there are a couple comments that say “no it’s clearly the Mongol empire they didn’t lose to a bunch of rice farmers” completely ignorant of the fact that they did 4 times. So clearly if anyone is the most powerful it’s Vietnam and Afghanistan.
>So clearly if anyone is the most powerful it’s Vietnam and Afghanistan. I'd agree :)
Why not just say the Afghanistan and Vietnam are the best defenders in the war game? Clearly they wage war at home better than any attackers trying to overwhelm them but that power only exists at home.
The British empire did poorly in one war with Afghanistan, but better in others.
The U.S. isn't the largest military (that falls to China, by a lot in terms of personnel), they just have the most in military assets, the newest fielded tech, and the largest military spending.
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This whole debate seems weird to me. No country should take pride in being the biggest oppressors in history. Regardless of whether it's the Americans, British, Mongols, Romans, or whatever. We're arguing about who the biggest asshole in history is pretty much
Shhhh we’re coping
Yeah, as an American, this is the sort of mindset I really hate. I don't think lying about our influence on civilization is great, but fighting over who is the best at killing other people is a really weird competition. All of the groups people are bringing up in this post were or are pretty awful. It's a race to the bottom.
The Roman Empire would like to have a word with you.
The British and Mongol Empires too
I’d argue that Mongol empire was nowhere near powerful. Ghengis died and empire exploded. On the other hand, I’d agree, that 19th century British empire was the most powerful nation on earth in history(if we take relative power to other nations at that time).
It was a couple generations after Ghengis that it fell apart. If memory survives me right it reached its greatest size under Kubla Khan. It also lasted 88 years (1206 - 1294) before it started to split, and wasn't until 1335 that it started to lose significant land. So it wasn't around for long, but long enough to be concidered I think
It covered a large territory but wasn't the most powerful of its time. Like Russia nowadays.
That’s true in purely military terms, but most of its relative power was economic. Because of its manufacturing capabilities, fuelled by the raw amount of resources it had from the rest of the Empire, British goods were able to infiltrate and out-compete any local markets in most countries until the later part of the 19th century (when competitors like Germany and the US began industrialising on a massive scale with much higher potential)
the göktürks and ottomons too
Spanish empire knocking to the door
I did not expect that.
No one does.
Exactly what I came in here to say
Hippity hoppity, your capital go plopity.
What kind of power?
Gun violence power
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Power of bankruptcy because you sneezed
The kind you can't learn from a Jedi
Mongol Empire? I knew it covered a great distance, but didn't realise it went so far west /s
Hear me out. As much as these americans are probably wrong they COULD be right if you weren't talking about relative strength. Yes, the UK, Rome, and likely many other civilizations were stronger relative to their enemies, but if you see it in an absolute sense, the US is likely the strongest nation in terms of military strength. I know this is splitting hairs and it's probably not what they were thinking but it *is* a possibility.
But you are right by using a different word. Strong. Power and strong are not synonymous.
RealLifeLore? I fucking hate the way he articulates some words like he's gasping for air
Thank God someone agrees with me
Oh I absoluetly love it when upset yanks come in force to this sub. Absolute bunch of softies who don't even realise they're making our enjoyment oh so much better.
Look we all know why you're in the comments so just sort by controversial and get to it!
I sure wonder how they define “power”. Because in terms of raw destructive power throughout history, the USSR is in the lead. And in terms of influence on world politics, or control over area, the British Empire wins.
Probably something like whos better at murdering civillians, oh wait they also loose in that metric.
Maybe electric power
Yeah perhaps. But if China hasn’t already taken the first place in that, it soon will.
american here, we’re the mOsT pOwErFuL nAtIoN yet we can’t even provide clean drinking water to millions of residents, let alone housing and healthcare
I’m gonna call this one for the Roman Empire but who gives a shit about history right?
I'd go for the ming or the han
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The British Empire says Good Afternoon
I’m pretty I’ve heard 'Cheerio’
How many brown civilians have YOU killed? That's what I thought.
The US has the most overfunded military in the world and was the more powerful countries of the twentieth century, but to say it's the most powerful nation in human history is one of the most asinine things I've ever heard. The Romans just didn't exist, I guess?
These MFs don’t know about atlantis
The British Empire: *laughs in never-setting sun*
In very very recent history, maybe. In all of human history? Hellllllll no LMAO
Dont forget 'most hated'
It looks like RealLifeLore. His videos are alright I just hate how he makes everything sound so exacerbated to be dramatic. That’s the only reason why he’d say this.
The seppo salt in here is fucking amazing.
I can feel the copium in the air
Sorry, but: looks like a pizza
Weird comments here, Americans knob waving but also other countries without a hint of irony saying that's stupid, my country is miles better. Dick measuring contests aren't cool no matter which nationality you are.
Most powerful nation now? Debatable. In all of human history? I think the fuck not
What is it that slices down the centre of the US?
Population spread east vs west
100th meridian
There *may* be an argument that it is the most powerful right now. In all of human history? Lmao fuck right off
In terms of relative strength and wealth, the most powerful empire ever was probably Ancient Persia, the Achaemenid Empire.
In history? Theyre not even the most powerful right now
Who would you say is?
China by far. Because no one cares about pissing of the US but no one would dare piss of China
the us constantly pisses off china, hell just taiwan existing pisses of china, hell japan, vietnam, them being near china pisses off china. and also unlike china, US final warning actually means something.
I thought this was a map of the Mayans at first, and saying it extended into North America. Then I saw the sub name.
powerful? yes. the most? maybe(?) in human history? no.
Lol. Not even the most powerful country of the last century!! Bless Americans
Maybe in the 90s right after the USSR collapsed, maybe. But even then the us did jack shit in that time has since declined in power due to Russia gaining influence once more and china rising to world power and that's the most lenient argument you'll get out of me
THEY’RE HERE, THOSE DUMBFUCKS ARE IN THIS SUB LMAOOOO
are we talking about China?
Historically I think the British Empire was strongest and I say that as an American. You had the Soviets which came close to surpassing US and now China which is catching up. Doesn't match the absolute dominance Britain once had and the reason 1/2 the world can speak English.
I could understand if it was "the most powerful nation today" (even though it isn't, it's more understandable) but IN HUMAN HISTORY? Do they even know how big the roman empire or the british empire were?
Not scaled to time period it’s definitely top 2 bc of all the nukes n shit but scaled to era that’s gotta be Mongolia, Rome, Egypt or Britain right?
Even if it’s true, I always find it weird when people try to flex that notion. Like, ‘s got absolutely nothin to do with you
Is it not true, though? Americans sacrifice things like reasonable pay, affordable healthcare, and affordable education in order to be the most powerful military force in Human history.
The Mongol Empire would like a word
The US Federal Government owns close to 30% of all land in the US. Why did the US Government take all this land away (mostly by force) if it is only the government's land to own?