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So, this is a question that has been bugging me for a while.

Every other nation in Europe has a "hat" of sorts.

France was always the most cultured one. The Scandinavians were sea-faring, tough, strong, and hardy. The Germans were well-trained, disciplined, and pragmatically minded. The Italians were scientifically and aesthetically minded, and had great financial sense. The Spanish and Portuguese had their great fleets, navies, seafarers and explorers, and great cavalry from the Iberian plains, not to mention religious fervor. The Byzantines and Ottomans had a thousand years of tradition, a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious realm, and an administration nobody else could match. The Dutch were the greatest merchants around, with a decent navy to boot.

Yet, the only thing I can think England has are two things:

1. A great navy, but only greater than Spain's after the famous battle that sunk the latter's.

2. Welsh Longbowmen, who aren't even technically English, and even then once muskets came into widespread usage, they sort of became a moot point.

So... How exactly were the English people capable of forging the greatest empire the world has ever seen? Sure, they entered the Industrial Revolution first, but even before they had a substantial empire, and even then, what made them able to reach the point of industrialization before other Europeans?

The English have just always seemed like, I dunno, a bland race of people to me. Nothing truly special about them. So I just don't understand how they did so well.

I was hoping somebody could enlighten me on this point.
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