How, just How?

regardless of what your thoughts are on Empire

it bewilders me that this small fu*king island conquered pretty much the whole world

this little tiny patch of land

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it's amazing that they did it with a weak navy

despite all the memes, the Royal Navy was never actually that OMG AMAZING, it was mid tier at best

By becoming French

England to Ireland:

-"I used to be an irrelevant island like you. Then I took a frog to the throne"

beating poos, abbos, and niggers with spears isn't that hard desu

The Dutch empire was relatively impressive too. The population in the homeland was, what, 2 millions before the 19th century?

is this true guys, is the royal navy overrated?

Thank king Henry 8.

>How
Because they were the most hardworking and caring people in history. They had the passion and drive to want to advance the standards of living throughout the whole world. And they did. Thank you.

>this delusion
It was actually through treating people like inhuman machines through the process of industrialization but whatever helps you sleep at night

The queen gave the okay for multiple monopolies over certain terrories, these monopolies acted more like mini nations, when the people got huffy about it a few centries later the queen disbanded the indian trade company, which of course didnt just go away, it became america

>Because they were the most hardworking and caring people in history.

That would be the Germans

>the Germans
A decent 3rd place behind the French. Not bad.

>British Empire
>Weak navy
Fuck off

Great Britain was basically fucking nothing before about 1500.
Chaucer, Beowulf, the King Arthur legends, and that's about it.
The rest of Europe thought of them as a sort of rustic backwater of noble savages.
But they had ships, because they were an island and had to trade.
And when ships became capable of sailing long distances, lookee who was up in northwestern Europe with nothing but water between them and North America.
They exploited NA very effectively and then invested in conquering the rest of the world. They managed to wrest Australia and New Zealand from the Dutch (nice little nation but we're not gonna let you through the English Channel if you expect to have an empire) and benefited from that too.
They had a good run of 300-400 years.
They never were a big presence in South America, and their experiments in Asia and Africa left behind some good educational institutions and traditions (and English speakers) but not much else.

>Conquered the whole world
>Mowing down some savages with a machine gun, and calling yourself king of Africa
The most important Colony was India, and you dipshits ruined it with your total incompetence.

>The rest of Europe thought of them as a sort of rustic backwater of noble savages.
Don't see how this is true at all, they had an unusually high literacy rate and efficient government for a medieval kingdom.

Memes aside, it's becoming more evident to me just how influencial Britain has been in the last 400 years. Before America started gaining traction in the 20th century, most of what we affiliate with the West comes from Britain. All of the famous tales, poems, books, etc.

>Beowulf
Nobody gave a fucking flip about Beowulf in 1500. Nobody could read it, and it sat gathering dust until people thought it was neat in the 1800s

>All of the famous tales, poems, books, etc
That is because you are an English speaker from an English derived country.

English literature is pretty irrelevant

>The most important contributions to English literature are a bunch of plays made for retards

They are known to more than just English speaking countries. Anglo culture more or less asserted itself as the de facto center culture.

Yes, via the American Hegemon.

>they were never a big presence in South America
We didn't need to be, as the empire we had built de jure had incredibly well placed trading hubs for entire regions. The 'informal empire' was the fuckin huge amount of influence we wielded simply from trade - South America and China can be said to have been part of the 'informal empire' (though, as you said, South America was a lot more irrelevant to us).

ITT: Butthurt Euros

You once dismissed us, turns out we were better than all of you. The tiny island you consider and irrelevant backwater has turned out to be more influential than any other modern European power by far, and all you can do to vent your frustration is shitpost on anime forums

Pretty hilarious actually

>Run a few formerly decent countries straight into the ground
>Put the Saudi in Saudi Arabia
>Claim credit for the Cultural Imperium instituted by one of your earliest colonial Losses, one what done based its entire identity on Defying you
We're doing it, guys. God save the King and shitty sausages!

>Weak
Compared to what? Portugal and France?

Doesn't that really tell you how irrelevant British literature is? The greatest contribution is a goddamn play.

Like saying the greatest contribution to music is the soundtrack to some movie.

Stop speaking our language then

Oh wait no one would understand you

tbf so did everyone else at the time

It's my language now, you little bitch

>Irrelevent British literature

>Charles Dickens
>Jane Austin
>Bronte sisters
>Mary Shelly
>William Wordsworth
>Geoffrey Chaucer
>George Eliot
>E.M forster
>Rudyard Kipling
>JRR Tolkien
>AA Milne
>William Golding
>Evelyn Waugh
>Agatha Christie
>CS Lewis
>Lewis Carol
>Virgina Wolfe

And that's just the beginning

It still is a poor tradition compared to the influence of english language

>Female writers

>I can't stand to see anything successful come out of Britain cause it might hurt my fragile euro ego

>women

1 Britain being a island is their biggest advantage, while other European Empires were dealing with invasions and the burden of massive armies Britain was able to focus on the economy.
2. About half of the British Empire(Canada, Australia, South Africa) is just empty space. All Britain had to do was send some settlers and the White Christian English Speaking colonies just became extensions of the UK.
3. Of the remaining parts of the British Empire you had Sub-Saharan Africa, which was such a joke that little Belgium could rape it to it's heart content. The Arab countries, which even the sick man of Europe could keep in line and are famed for how bad they are at fighting. And finally the crown jewel of the British Empire. India. The British just took over where the Mughals left off.

maybe not politically, but definitely economically. Argentina went from bro tier to complete shit when England stopped buying their beef exports, thanks to mass refrigeration. 100 years later and they're stilll feeling the after effects.

They are pretty much invincible because of being an island.

They were sneaky fags and outjewed everyone. Read about how they conquered India. It was similar to what Pizarro did in the Incan Empire but up to eleven.

UK is not that much better than other European nations at literature, and it's surprisingly irrelevant in music.
You're very biased.

>what pizarro did
They waited until diseases killed everyone?

>CS Lewis
>British
Why do Anglos always do this

>They are pretty much invincible because of being an island.

But they have been conquered dozens of times?

I once saw a "100 greatest British writers" list that included people like James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Edmund Burke, Colm ToibĂ­n, Frank McCourt and Brian Merriman, who didn't even speak English.

>brits
>caring
lmao

You were #1 by being total cunts

Ireland was British when he was alive and Northern Ireland still is.

Cry more, paddy.,

>trying to banter against the bog that you couldn't keep under control

There's literally nothing wrong with saying he was Irish. People can be Irish and British. People can be British and Scottish.

Anglo autism literally never ceases to amaze.

youtube.com/watch?v=q0cOTDBQJSo
>non anglos mad they are actually that pathetic

CS Lewis was a Protestant and didn't become an Irish nationalist (unlike Yeats) so he was British.

So an man born and raised in England who decides he is a catholic and hates England isn't english?

Irish people can also be British. Ireland is an Island as well as a "nation", you can be "Irish" and British and have been able to be that way for centuries you gormless kike

So you're saying he's British. Right, thanks for agreeing.

Yes. A British Irishman. Is that hard to comprehend?

British Tars, tough settlers, hardy explorers, the Industrial Revolution, great sense of oppertunity, free trade, and little bit of luck

Nope. Ireland is part of the British isles. You could stick him on a top Irish writers list as well, if you wanted.

The funniest part is that the Mercator projection makes it seem larger than reality. It's even smaller.