Ten strongest countries in 1914

1. British Empire - Largest colonial Empire and IIRC it had the strongest economy in the world at the time.
2. Germany - Strongest army in Europe with an incredible industial economy.
3. U.S. - An emerging power with a strong economy and growing political influence.
4. France - Second largest colonial Empire with a strong economy.
5. Russia - Large army with a lot of territory.
6. Austria-Hungary - Large army with decent industry, but AH is being torn apart by ethnic tension.
7. Italy - Large economy (although it's mostly agrarian) with a decent military.
8. Japan - Emerging power with a growing industry. It had a good military, but it's economy was still smaller then the countries above it and it's political influence was limited to Korea and parts of China.
9. Ottoman Empire - Decent military leadership (Ataturk), but being torn apart by ethnic tension and recently lost territory to Italy. It's economy was also quite a bit weaker then the Big 8.
10. I don't know. Maybe a Scandinavian country or Argentina.

Actual performance, reputation and power projection abilities? Not saying the Italians failed (I'd heard that they'd performed badly, but it was a very indepth analysis), but that would be ways a nation would seem less powerful.

Italy was one of the weaker powers, but it was still more powerful and influential then the Ottoman Empire. They defeated the Ottoman Empire, had an economy that was almost 4 times the size of the Ottoman Empire, and it had political influence in Southern Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, East Africa, and China.

When Otto Von Bismarck was looking for allies to counter the Russians, British, and French he chose Austria-Hungary and Italy. Not the Ottoman Empire. When the Boxer Rebellion broke out in China, 8 countries took part in putting the Rebellion down and had concessions in the country: Britain, France, the U.S., Japan, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy.
 
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Esopo

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Actual performance, reputation and power projection abilities? Not saying the Italians failed (I'd heard that they'd performed badly, but it was a very indepth analysis), but that would be ways a nation would seem less powerful.

Turkish reputation cannot remotely be' compared to Italian one, as lee senesi has explained. Turks were considere a rotten corpse.
Italian performance in libyAn War showed how italy Was stronger than turkey, and ww1 italy Was able to fight a War which makes Turkish efforts in the same War look like a pub brawl ( just look at the losses on both sides). Italian power projection spread from mediterraenan to Somalia to china. Ottoman one Was limited to Its own territory.
 
Turkish reputation cannot remotely be' compared to Italian one, as lee senesi has explained. Turks were considere a rotten corpse.
Italian performance in libyAn War showed how italy Was stronger than turkey, and ww1 italy Was able to fight a War which makes Turkish efforts in the same War look like a pub brawl ( just look at the losses on both sides). Italian power projection spread from mediterraenan to Somalia to china. Ottoman one Was limited to Its own territory.

To be fair, the Ottomans have the British thorn on their side. At least they won Gallipoli while the Italians fared worse in their front with AH.
 
To be fair, the Ottomans have the British thorn on their side. At least they won Gallipoli while the Italians fared worse in their front with AH.

The common opinion of the Ottoman Empire at the time was that it was a dying man. It was commonly referred to as "The Sick Man of Europe".

They did prove that they were still great during WWI. However, the Ottomans lost to Italy. That's a fact.

And about the Italians, this is what General Ludendorff of the German army had to say"

"In Vittorio Veneto, Austria did not lose a battle, but lose the war and itself, dragging Germany in its fall. Without the destructive battle of Vittorio Veneto, we would have been able, in a military union with the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, to continue the desperate resistance through the whole winter, in order to obtain a less harsh peace, because the Allies were very fatigued."

Was the Ottoman Empire still a Great Power? Sure. A strong argument can be made for that, especially with their showing at Gallipoli and excellent military leadership under the likes of Ataturk. Was it greater than Italy? No. At the time, no one considered it greater then Italy and it lost a war to Italy. It had an economy that was several times smaller, with a weaker industrial base, a smaller army and it's political influence was limited to the Balkans and the Middle East while Italian influence stretched over three continents.

Field Marshall Helmut Von Moltke said this about the Ottoman Empire: Turkey is militarily a non-entity. If Turkey was described before as a sick man. It must now be described as a dying man.

This was said while allied to Austria-Hungary and Italy. Yes. The Ottoman Empire did rather well during the war, but it was a weaker nation then Italy.
 
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Turkish reputation cannot remotely be' compared to Italian one, as lee senesi has explained. Turks were considere a rotten corpse.
I said that those factors were not relevant here, merely a way that such an event of a clearly stronger nation being seen a weaker in theory.
 
I think Japan should be ranked higher than it is.
Rank 8 isnt really so bad. It was after WW1 and the interwar period that Japan really expanded, militarily, economically and territorially. For the WW1/prewar era 8th sounds right, for the interwar i would put them at 5th.
 
I said that those factors were not relevant here, merely a way that such an event of a clearly stronger nation being seen a weaker in theory.

It was proven weaker in the war that came 2 years before WWI. It was weaker in theory and in practice.

Rank 8 isnt really so bad. It was after WW1 and the interwar period that Japan really expanded, militarily, economically and territorially. For the WW1/prewar era 8th sounds right, for the interwar i would put them at 5th.

It profited quite a bit from the War. They got territorial gains with relatively little sacrifice along with a lot of prestige while Western nations, in particular Russia, France, Germany, and Italy were hit hard by the war. During the Interwar period it rose above certain others.
 
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I assumed that you were saying that Italy was only stronger then the Otoman Empire on theory.
Nope. I'd accepted that I had been wrong on that, but still wanted to provide a hypothetical explination.

It seems my main error was underestimating the recent growth rate of Anatolia.
 
1. UK (with colonies)
2. Germany
3. Great Britain (without colonies)
4. USA
5. France
6. Russia
7. Austria-Hungary
8. Japan (might be 9 instead)
9. Ottoman Empire
10. Italy
 
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