Blackleaf for you

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
49,906
1,905
113
Greece and Rome once had vast empires as well. Now all three of you are about on par. Ustawazz.



Britain is on a par with two entities which have between them a population a bit smaller than that of London and a combined economy almost half that of London's?
 

captain morgan

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 28, 2009
28,429
148
63
A Mouse Once Bit My Sister
Sure it has... it's called the USA..

It has territories such as the US Virgin Island, Commonwealth of Northern Marian Islands, Guam and has bases around the world in Germany, Japan, Canada and I think even in the UK (6 US Military Bases in the UK) to protect it from powers like Russia and China that could wipe you off the map in a day or two.


Canada has a number of territories as well including the Turks and Caicos. BVI and Gibraltor are next, we've already chosen new names
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
49,906
1,905
113
Yeah, we believe you where billions wouldn't.


Face it. The vast majority of people around the world see Canada and the USA as what they are - two creations of Great Britain who bestowed on them the gifts of parliamentary democracy, Magna Carta (which the US Constitution), liberal, free-trade economics, and the English language.

People the world over know that both those countries wouldn't be where they are now had it not been for any of those things.


Right. GB had an empire and now it doesn't .... it's a hasbeen.
It's better being a has-been than a never-has-been.

Most likely. That's the fate of empires. Countries could wise up and give the empire-building a pass. It's save a shipload of lives, time, money, and grief.
Other countries can do what they like. What other countries do and don't do doesn't bother me.


What the modern world is missing today, however, is the British Empire. The world was a much better place when the British Empire was around.

Canada has a number of territories as well including the Turks and Caicos.


Turks and Caicos is a British Overseas Territory. If I remember likely their leader told Canada to get stuffed.
 

captain morgan

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 28, 2009
28,429
148
63
A Mouse Once Bit My Sister
Turks and Caicos is a British Overseas Territory. If I remember likely their leader told Canada to get stuffed.

BVI, T&C and London are just a handful of the jurisdictions that are supremely unhappy with Britian and have expressed a pressing interest in joining Canada.

What can I say?

LOL, smok'in that cheap shyt again huh :lol:

No way man, BC bud all the way
 

B00Mer

Make Canada Great Again
Sep 6, 2008
47,127
8,145
113
Rent Free in Your Head
www.canadianforums.ca
After 1815, the British lost a series of wars (or was gutted internally as in the World Wars). In losing, there was a steady decline of the control that the British had over their colonies because of independence movements. This signified the decline of the phrase that was their epitome: "The sun never sets on the British Empire".

Here is a great read... might shake some of the delusional dream land you live in..

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire: Piers Brendon: 9780224062220: Amazon.com: Books

Summary

A comprehensive, scholarly and fascinating study of the end of the British Empire.

No empire has been larger or more diverse than the British Empire. At its apogee in the 1930s, 42 million Britons governed 500 million foreign subjects. Britannia ruled the waves, and a quarter of the earth’s surface was coloured red on the map. Where Britain’s writ did not run directly, its influence, sustained by matchless industrial and commercial sinews, was often paramount.

Yet no empire (except for the Russian) disappeared more swiftly. Within a generation, this mighty structure sank almost without trace leaving behind a scatter of sea-girt dependencies and a ghost of empire — the Commonwealth. Equally, it can be claimed that Britain bequeathed its former colonies economic foundations, a cultural legacy, a sporting spirit, a legal code and a language more ubiquitous than Latin ever was.

Full of vivid particulars, brief lives, telling anecdotes, comic episodes, symbolic moments and illustrative vignettes, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire evokes remote places as well as distant times.

 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
49,906
1,905
113
Fascinating... I never realized that the British empire dissolved so quickly.

The second fastest fall since the economic collapse of Russia you say?

Remarkable, albeit, it's no surprise.


Historian warns of sudden collapse of American ‘empire’

by
Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 6, 2010


Harvard professor and prolific author Niall Ferguson opened the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival Monday with a stark warning about the increasing prospect of the American “empire” suddenly collapsing due to the country’s rising debt level.

“I think this is a problem that is going to go live really soon,” Ferguson said. “In that sense, I mean within the next two years. Because the whole thing, fiscally and other ways, is very near the edge of chaos. And we’ve seen already in Greece what happens when the bond market loses faith in your fiscal policy.”

Ferguson said empires — such as the former Soviet Union and the Roman empire — can collapse quite quickly and the tipping point is often when the cost of servicing an empire’s debt is larger than the cost of its defense budget.

“That has not been the case I think at any point in U.S. history,” Ferguson said. “It will be the case in the next five years.”


Ferguson was conscious of opening the Ideas Festival on such a stark note.

“Walter Isaacson, the leader of this great institution said, ‘Don’t be too dark!,’” Ferguson said.

The affable British scholar tried to keep it light. He used a stage whisper to tell the Aspen Institute audience, “I know you’re not comfortable with the word ‘empire,’ especially just after the Fourth of July, but you are the Redcoats now.”

He said the U.S. is now deeply in the red as a country because of a combination of the Great Recession, the resulting federal stimulus and financial bailout programs, two wars, the Bush tax cuts, and a growth in social entitlement programs.

And economic debt can lead to a sudden loss of military power and global respect, Ferguson said.



Historian warns of sudden collapse of American ‘empire’ | Aspen Daily News Online
 

captain morgan

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 28, 2009
28,429
148
63
A Mouse Once Bit My Sister
That will be quite some time into the future Blackie... You see, the Americans have the most powerful navy on Earth. This alone allows them to control all shipping if they so desire.

You see, they don't have a pretend navy with make-believe vessels... In fact, if a Russian vessel came within any distance of any of the tens of thousands of miles of US shoreline, they would have an inteceptor there within minutes, and not within a week like the British navy

Nope, the American Empire is just in it's infancy and will only get stronger as every day goes by
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
49,906
1,905
113
the Americans have the most powerful navy on Earth. This alone allows them to control all shipping if they so desire.


The British had the most powerful navy and controlled the vast majority of the world's trade and shipping. Between 1815 and the early 1900s Britain controlled all of the key maritime trade routes and enjoyed unparalleled sea power. The Royal Navy was always at least twice as large as the enxt largest navy. Such things do not guarantee that an empire will survive.

And the fact is that the US Navy is nowhere near as powerful and world dominant as the Royal Navy was when it ruled the seas. And it can never hope to be. The US Navy is NOT going to control all the world's shipping and trade routes as the Royal Navy did for the simple fact that, unlike the RN in its prime, it cannot.

The RN and Great Britain was unchallenged for over a century. The United States is already a declining force in the world and is about to be eclipsed economically, politically and militarily by China.

You see, they don't have a pretend navy with make-believe vessels...
The Americans not updating their navy to make it fir for the 21st Century is not a problem of mine. They'd better do something about it pretty pronto, though. China's rapidly catching up with them.
 
Last edited:

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
117,187
14,244
113
Low Earth Orbit
The standard of living and the freedom that Canada and the USA now enjoy are as a result of those countries adopting those liberal British economic policies, Britain's parliamentary system (Canada) and documents such as Magna Carta that the British gifted those countries.

Your standard of living and your freedom were all as a result of being born the children of Great Britain.

Had the USA and Canada been solely French colonies they would have gone the way of other French colonies such as Chad and Niger.

The fact that lots of British colonies are now wealthy nations and most French colonies and now poor, impoverished, failed states is no coincidence.

As I've pointed out before - the fact that Britain allowed Canada and the USA to become the wealthy nations they are today is something that most Canadians and Americans should be eternally grateful for.

You can only be a "has-been" if you've only ever had it in the first place.

Twenty to thirty years from now we'll be talking about the USA being a has-been, as a result of its declining economic, political and military power in the world which will soon see it superceded by China.
400 years of Canadian beaver pelts for an economy? What did you do afterwards? Allsorts?
 

captain morgan

Hall of Fame Member
Mar 28, 2009
28,429
148
63
A Mouse Once Bit My Sister
The British had the most powerful navy and controlled the vast majority of the world's trade and shipping. Between 1815 and the early 1900s Britain controlled all of the key maritime trade routes and enjoyed unparalleled sea power. The Royal Navy was always at least twice as large as the enxt largest navy. Such things do not guarantee that an empire will survive.

And the fact is that the US Navy is nowhere near as powerful and world dominant as the Royal Navy was when it ruled the seas. And it can never hope to be. The US Navy is NOT going to control all the world's shipping and trade routes as the Royal Navy did for the simple fact that, unlike the RN in its prime, it cannot.

The RN and Great Britain was unchallenged for over a century. The United States is already a declining force in the world and is about to be eclipsed economically, politically and militarily by China.

The Americans not updating their navy to make it fir for the 21st Century is not a problem of mine. They'd better do something about it pretty pronto, though. China's rapidly catching up with them.


That's great that at one point hundreds of years ago you had a navy, but today is what counts.

Today, you have nothing more than a pretend navy with make-believe ships.

Hell, I'll bet that the number of sea worthy vessels in the False Creek harbor in Vancouver eclipses your entire 'navy'
 

B00Mer

Make Canada Great Again
Sep 6, 2008
47,127
8,145
113
Rent Free in Your Head
www.canadianforums.ca

EagleSmack

Hall of Fame Member
Feb 16, 2005
44,168
96
48
USA
It's actually the US and Canada which are the kid daughters of Britain. The British Empire created you, remember.


I think these guys had more to do with the creation of the US than the Brits...





And these guys...





I'll let the Canadians answer for themselves.


Blackleaf thinks that the only adversary in WWII was Germany...


Attention... no Brits were harmed in the taking of this island...





Or this one...





Or this....


 
Last edited:

Zipperfish

House Member
Apr 12, 2013
3,688
0
36
Vancouver
It's not Britain nor the "glories of the British Empire" that everyone has a problem with. It's the unparalleled arrogance and unending negativity and criticism towards everyone and anyone else that people object to when it comes to Blackleaf.

If you have to put someone down everytime you need to talk yourself up, that speaks to glaring self-esteem issues. In all honesty he should be pitied then ignored. In that order.

I always though that he was, as they say over their, taking the piss. It never actually occurred to me that he was serious. ha ha ha