What country would have had the best chance to become the British Empire's true rival

TFSmith121

Banned
The United States, as it did, historically...

During the height of Pax Britanica could there have been any country that could have developed as a true rival to the British Empire? That mean's being neck and neck in terms of power and reach.

The United States, as it did, historically...

The PB can be defined in a lot of ways, but in terms of economic power, based on Bairoch via Kennedy, if the measurement is relative shares of world manufacturing output in 1900, the numbers look like this:

US - 23.6 percent
UK - 18.5 percent
GE - 13.2 percent
RU - 8.8 percent
FR - 6.8 percent
AH - 4.7 percent
IT - 2.5 percent

In terms of total industrial potential in relative perspective, with 100 being Britain in 1900, the numbers look like this:

US - 127.8
UK - 100
GE - 71.2
RU - 47.5
FR - 36.8
AH - 25.6
IT - 13.6

Steel production, 1900:

US - 10.3 million tons
GE - 6.3 million
UK - 5 million
RU - 2.2 million
FR - 1.5 million
AH - 2.1 million
IT - 110,000 tons

And so it goes.

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The US was definitely an economic workhorse throughout the 19th century and into the 20th but It didn't have much of an international reach really, certainly militaristically, aside from a few attempts towards the end of the century.

I think a more imperialistic minded US from the get-go could have very well been quite the challenger to Britain during this period.

However it seemed like the US was more focused on settling its own continent and dealing with the slavery and southern issues of course than controlling the far flung seas.

and most generally Pax Britannica refers to the period of 1815 to 1914
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Sure - the question is pretty wide open, however

The US was definitely an economic workhorse throughout the 19th century and into the 20th but It didn't have much of an international reach really, certainly militaristically, aside from a few attempts towards the end of the century. I think a more imperialistic minded US from the get-go could have very well been quite the challenger to Britain during this period. However it seemed like the US was more focused on settling its own continent and dealing with the slavery and southern issues of course than controlling the far flung seas, and most generally Pax Britannica refers to the period of 1815 to 1914

Sure - the question is pretty wide open, however, and one could argue the growth of the US from the original 13 across the continent is as much a clear case of sucessful competition with the British Empire - and at the expense, arguably, of Britain's great power rivals, notably France, Spain, and Russia - as any of the imperial efforts of the European powers in Africa or Asia.

The point, however, is that economic power generates the military and diplomatic capabilities that allows competition among nation states; the economic figures outlined above are close to the tale end of the PB, but make clear the trends of the previous century. If there is a specific year that one sees as more appropriate than 1900, Kennedy has a variety of similar measurements going back to the Eighteenth Century.

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