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The Strongest Super power in History

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ham_man said:
That is do to America's status as a super power during and after the Cold War, when much of globalization as we know it occurred...
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I'd have to agree partly, though the British Empire laid the groundwork (source)

List of English Speaking countries
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Australia
• Bahamas,The
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belize
• Bermuda
• Botswana
• Brunei
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Cayman Islands
• Dominica
• Fiji
• Gambia,The
• Ghana
• Gibraltar
• India
• Ireland
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Malawi
• Malta
• Mauritius
• New Zealand
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Seychelles
• Sierra Leone
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Uganda
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Out of that list I can only think of one that the US is directly responsible for them speaking English and thats the Philippines.
 
jdechko said:
Well, I'd say that militarily, it's the US today. If we were talking about influence on modern life, I'd give that one to the Romans, but I gotta say that Superman's heat vision is probably the coolest super power.
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Glad to know that I wasn't the only one who thought we'd be talking comic books here.

I suppose in terms of relative military might (and possibly economic might) the Brits would take the cake at their peak. For absolute military might (and possibly economic) the US at its peak.

For influence on the way the world is today... tough call. The Romans and Brits both have a decent claim to that one. To close for me to call.

I discount the Chinese at this point because we live in a predominantly Western world. The Chinese have had and do have a vast, vast empire that I'm not discounting out of hand, but they have, as of yet, had a substancial influence on a global scale. That is of course changing. In as little as 50 years, maybe 100, it will be easy to make a case that China's empire is the most powerful in absolute terms, both military and economic, as well as the influence they are likely to have on global society by that point.

I think the Flash has a good case to having the strongest superpower, though. He can move at many many times the speed of sound, accelerate to that speed nearly instantly, and manages not to burn up in the atmosphere while doing it. The kinetic energy he must build up traveling that speed would probably be enough to do some damage to even Superman if he ran into him going full force. ;)
 
dynamicv said:
Ironically, I'd say Rome has the USA on this one. Rome was economically self-sufficient. What would happen now to the US economy without Chinese manufacturing, Venezuelan oil or Japanese money? Rome never had those problems. It produced everything it needed itself.
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Or conquered the country/tribe/region that produced what it needed.
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I discount the Chinese at this point because we live in a predominantly Western world. The Chinese have had and do have a vast, vast empire that I'm not discounting out of hand, but they have, as of yet, had a substancial influence on a global scale.
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One word. Gunpowder.
 
When I first walked into business school as a freshman in college, the professor said the most powerful empire in the world was the Golden Arches like McDonald's, or American corporations in general. That was back in 1982 and it still holds but some power has been yielded to China and India for sure since the advent of outsourcing.

Toward the end of the Soviet era, it became clear the two most powerful nations in history was going to become just one, the United States.

Overall, I think America has done well as an empire on the human rights record if you compare against ancient Rome or the fascists of World War II, but much of the goodwill the country has amassed over decades has been erased by the current president.
 
ham_man said:
I'd pick the sides with the Delta Force, the Green Berets, the Rangers, the SEALs
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Jokes..

Delta force.. oh dear oh dear.

the side with the most nukes, the side with the laser guided bombs, the side with the Airborne, the side with the GPS guided bombs, the side with the marines, the side with the F-117, the side with the B-2, the side with the F-22... :rolleyes:
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Yeah, you carry on with your arrogence and rolling your eyes.

Whilst your men are arming up there nukes and planing the 2 day operation behind it... my gurkhas will slit there throats with $10 knife.

AGAIN, it isnt about who has the biggest bomb. If the american forces could organize a piss up in a brewery then maybe they would be feared more.
 
dynamicv said:
One word. Gunpowder.
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Two words. Printing. Press.

Tanglewood said:
I'd have to agree partly, though the British Empire laid the groundwork (source)
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While the British may have caused many countries to adopt English as their language, it was US dominance in the latter half of the 20th century that caused English to be the international language of choice for business, science, etc.

And you know what...why hasn't someone mentioned the Arabic dynasties from ~650 to ~1100...? They were the ones who enable the West to rise up from the Dark Ages. The Rennasaince would have never happened had those in the Middle East not preserved the discoveries of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. We also can't overlook their advancements in medicine, math (Arabic numberals), and others...
 
dynamicv said:
Press I'll give you, but Printing? Invented in China.
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:confused: I was talking about China...

EDIT 1 - Guess I can see now how there is confusion...

EDIT 2 - Jaffa...the first known "Printing Press" (i.e. Ink would be spread on something, then stamp down to form an image) was first developed in China (I think it may have been Korea, although it wouldn't surprise me if they held Korea at that point). The idea spread when one of the Arabic empires (I believe) conquered a Chinese held city in the late first millenium. There they discovered that technology, and over the course of a few hundred years, the idea spread throughout the Middle East into Europe, where Guttenberg would build upon it with the movable type printing press.

:eek:...I did get a 5 on my World History AP exam...
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I think the Flash has a good case to having the strongest superpower, though. He can move at many many times the speed of sound, accelerate to that speed nearly instantly, and manages not to burn up in the atmosphere while doing it. The kinetic energy he must build up traveling that speed would probably be enough to do some damage to even Superman if he ran into him going full force. ;)
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And the Flash would be dead if he ran into anything.
 
I'm not so sure the question is phrased correctly. As others have danced around, what do you mean by "strongest"? Most influential? Biggest armies? Relatively or absolutely?

Today I'd say the US is weak both militarily (look how we've "won" in Iraq) and by influence (on the international leadership front). Our culture and language have spread far and wide, but our leadership (and I'm honestly not trying to get this thread moved) have whittled down our influence as world leaders and shown the limits of our first class military.

I don't know enough about world history, but the Romans were a military super-power of their time and succeeded in completely erasing an entire civilization from the face of the planet - the Carthaginians(?). They invaded, tore the cities down including the foundations, salted the lands and killed all the people - men, women, children. I'd say that puts them up there on the scale of both having the power and being willing to use it to full effect.
 
Thanatoast said:
Today I'd say the US is weak both militarily...
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Our military, using conventional warfare, could stomp any other country. Period.

Guerrilla warfare is a completely different beast, however...
 
ham_man said:
Our military, using conventional warfare, could stomp any other country. Period.
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That's what the US is doing wrong in Iraq. You should have walked in, proclaimed them all US Citizens and pressganged them all into the Marines.

It's what the Romans would have done :cool:

BTW without wanting to bang on about one subject, I couldn't see you doing that to China :eek: Or any other nuclear power come to think of it.
 
dynamicv said:
That's what the US is doing wrong in Iraq. You should have walked in, proclaimed them all US Citizens and pressganged them all into the Marines.
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They made them into slaves, if I recall correctly.

Also, a nuclear war isn't really a "war" if everyone is dead within an hour... :rolleyes:
 
ham_man said:
Our military, using conventional warfare, could stomp any other country. Period.

Guerrilla warfare is a completely different beast, however...
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Right now, I think we'd be hard pressed to take on Korea, let alone China. Our troop resources are extremely thin right now, and in terms of equipment, I think our stockpiles are limited. The tankers in Iraq are just now being equipped with canister rounds. And how would we send our troops that far? The merchant marine are few and we don't have a large supply of transport aircraft.
 
dynamicv said:
BTW without wanting to bang on about one subject, I couldn't see you doing that to China :eek: Or any other nuclear power come to think of it.
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You far underestimate the US military then. They could probably take on most of the world and win.
 

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decksnap said:
You far underestimate the US military then. They could probably take on most of the world and win.
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Tee hee. Maybe the US just had budgeting issues? :p
 
decksnap said:
You far underestimate the US military then. They could probably take on most of the world and win.
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I don't know....a nuclear tipped torpedo could easily eliminate a carrier battle group. And it doesn't need an advanced submarine to launch. Missiles are also a great equalizing factor.
 
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