Ten strongest countries in 1939

In 1939, in your opinion, who were the ten most powerful overall countries in the world? Considering army, navy, economy, industry, the political situation, power projection, influence, ect...

Obviously this is all subjective, so you can use whatever criteria you want.
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USA
USSR
Germany
UK
Japan
France

Ummm.....

That's about it. Spain and China were warzones. Maybe Italy, but to say 1939 Italy was 'strong' is really showing how weak the competition is. Argentina maybe? I feel like I must be forgetting somewhere obvious...
 
1 USA

2 USSR

3 Germany

4 UK

5 France

6 Japan

7 Italy

8 Brazil

9 Netherlands

10 Canada (potential power at least)
 
US

UK (if counting total commonwealth)

Germany

SU

France (latter three would be CLOSE)

Japan (not far behind)

Italy (sorry but Italy DID have powerful assets, just some outdated or used wrongly)

Poland (DID have a sizeable army - even modernizing - TP tanks airforce)

China (why should they be excluded they fought Japan since 1937 and were still there ;)

Argentine/Chile/Brazil - don't know too much about them


NOT in
Belgium too small
Netherlands big colonies NO modern forces
Mexico recovering
Czeck were just crippled
Hungarians/Romanians/finns who cares
 
I don't know if Canada should really make the cut. They had no army, no navy and no air force. They had little, if any influence/power projection.

By the end of the war, that is a totally different story. But it took until 1943-1944, for them to actually be ready to do anything independently of Britain. In 1945, they are probably top 5, but before the war they are pretty insignificant and should probably be lumped in with the Commonwealth.

And I say this as a proud Canadian.

List:
1. USA
2. Germany
3. Soviet Union
4. British Empire and Commonwealth (Dominions included)
5. France
6. Japan
7. Italy
8. Nat. China
9. Czechoslovakia
10. Poland

Not sure about those last two, but they are certainly more powerful than anyone else I can think of in 1939
 
1. USA
2. Soviet Union (had Stalin actually been prepared for the attack, even the purged army would have ended the war by 1943 at the latest, likely 1942)
3. British Empire
4. Germany (it was rapidly expanding, but it won so much merely because of great military strategy and enemy incompetence)
5. Japan
6. France (I think they fall just behind France)
7. Italy
8. Poland (wasn't too bad, just used wrong strategies and too much cavalry)
9. Getting hard from here... I'd say a South American country and either another SA or maybe Yugoslavia.

China - not a chance. It may have had a large army, but it was extremely corrupt and poor quality. Thanks to Soviet and American aid, China merely managed not to be completely overrun by the time the US could do anything about it. Warlordism was a big problem.

Czechoslovakia - not in 1939, when the Munich treaty tore them apart. Especially in late 1939, when they no longer existed, of course.

Canada - they weren't really strong, as they had no interest in expansionism. They merely helped out a bit and that was it.

Netherlands - I argued a 10th place for it for 1914, and while I uphold it was a contender back then, definitely not this time. Netherlands just gave up on army improvement by this point.

Axis lapdogs - no chance. Especially not Hungary, who actually employed bicycle divisions. Finland neither, they held out so well because the USSR underestimated them and because Karelia is a natural fortress anyway. (Plus Mannerheim and all that.)
 
1. USA
2. Soviet Union (had Stalin actually been prepared for the attack, even the purged army would have ended the war by 1943 at the latest, likely 1942)
3. British Empire
4. Germany (it was rapidly expanding, but it won so much merely because of great military strategy and enemy incompetence)
5. Japan
6. France (I think they fall just behind France)
7. Italy
8. Poland (wasn't too bad, just used wrong strategies and too much cavalry)
9. Getting hard from here... I'd say a South American country and either another SA or maybe Yugoslavia.

I agree with this mostly, but surely France's low ranking is only with hindisght? In 1939 didn't most people think France was the world's greatest military power?

Also, why are most people not putting the British Empire as number 2? With the world's largest navy, the largest population and the best global power projection capability, surely it should be ahead of the USSR which performed very poorly against Finland in the Winter War in 1939-40?

Could Turkey make 10th place?
 
1. U.S.A.
2. British Empire
3. U.S.S.R
4. Germany
5. France
6. Japan
7. Italy
8. Poland
9. Spain
10. China
 
9 Netherlands

Having a bigass colony does not make a country strong. Although the Netherlands was getting better from its pathetic position in the early 20th and late 19th century, I would still not place it in the top 10 (or 15, or maybe even top 20).
 
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