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Subject: Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage
Aeb4ever    1/13/2006 1:20:45 AM
What was the most powerful military of all time in terms of global share of military power? For example, the USA is currently ranked at having about 53% of total naval power. I am referring in terms of all branches vs the world. My votes would be either the Mongols at height, Romans at height, English at height, USA after WWII, or USA after Cold War. Can’t make a guess at each countries percentage though. Fell free to add your own list or make a guess at the percentages of mine.
 
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fall out    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 2:42:58 AM
France Napoleonic Era Greek at Height Romans at Height Mongols at Height US post-Cold War (your forgetting the Soviets after WW2) THe poms (English) and Germans get a honourable mention for their heights but they always had several large competitors and never controlled such a monopoly like the said empires/nations...
 
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gf0012-aust    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 3:00:34 AM
"THe poms (English) and Germans get a honourable mention for their heights but they always had several large competitors and never controlled such a monopoly like the said empires/nations... " wrt the poms - wtf??? at once stage they dominated 1/4 of the known world - and by known world we're talking at an intercontinental level. a lot of the other major powers mentioned here dominated their known world but it was transnational, transregional or transcontinental. The poms were the first major intercontinental superpower of their time - their navy was always designed to be able to fight two geographical wars at once - and they were the first real intercontinental power to fully appreciate the need to protect SLOCs. - Look what they did to the Spanish in Elizabeths time - even though they were smaller they absolutely ruined the economic base of the spanish and neutered their ability to fund war. the mongols owned the largest contiguous empire of any country in the world - but the poms owned, managed and defended the largest non contiguous empire - by a golden mile. they never lost their empire due to military conflict. the same can't be said for quite a few of the others.
 
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angryjohn    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 4:31:27 AM
The British strength was in trade and the wealth that the industrial revolution brought us rather than military might. Although the Empire was not lost in military defeat, it spent all its reserves on the WW1 war effort and was bankrupted fighting WW2. What about the Soviet Union. The Evil Empire controlled massive tracts of land and had a huge military?
 
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fall out    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 5:43:23 AM
Exactly, GF they were primarily a economic superpower; they lost the biggest possible jewel in their crown in America to their numerically and qualitative inferior Army/Militia and the French. At WW1 during what you could argue as their peak they, in combination with the Commonwealth, French Empire, Russian Empire, Americans, Italians, Japanese, etc, etc failed to beat the Germans; sure they did end up beating them strategically but it was with the help of most of the world's major powers. Now if they were so immensely powerful and this in their peak, then wouldn't they be able to defeat Germany by themselves instead of the help of many other nations? They had a powerful navy that was capable until late 1930s of defeating any singular navy in the world anywhere in the world, but naval power doesn't equal 'the most powerful military of all time in terms of global percentage' now does it? And it's pretty easy to build an empire internationally when your main competitors are too busy fighting with themselves on the continent... The French Empire alone in the late 1930s numbered around 100m and occupied roughly 1/5th of the world in area...
 
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AussieEngineer    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 6:16:08 AM
France Napoleonic Era You put them above the British Empire? They couldn't invade England. There were still other great powers in Europe that rivaled their power and defeated them in the end. Greek at Height There never was a greek empire. Your dislike for the Crown is showing FO. Any unbiased analysis of the facts would put the British Empire as one of the greatest empires of all time in terms of shear geographical size, economic and military power. The sun never set on the British Empire.
 
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gf0012-aust    Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage - FO   1/13/2006 6:24:58 AM
Exactly, GF they were primarily a economic superpower; they lost the biggest possible jewel in their crown in America to their numerically and qualitative inferior Army/Militia and the French. errr, what a load of bollocks. what do you think people like Mahan were proposing - a strong trading nation requires a strong navy - a strong trading nation can afford a strong military - thats a lesson that the french never managed to grasp hold of. It's also a lesson that the US, Soviets realised, and it sure as heck is a lesson that the Chinese are learning. A strong commercial entity buys the toys, the toys defend the empire, the toys provide leverage for those less willed to resist - the toys dominate by proxy. read your modern history and work out whether the great trading nations were also temporal military powers - and the greater commercial powers had strong navies, the greater economic powers were intercontinental in their colonies and also had the military to defend them. navies are fundamental to the security of great colonial powers. At WW1 during what you could argue as their peak they, in combination with the Commonwealth, French Empire, Russian Empire, Americans, Italians, Japanese, etc, etc failed to beat the Germans; sure they did end up beating them strategically but it was with the help of most of the world's major powers. Now if they were so immensely powerful and this in their peak, then wouldn't they be able to defeat Germany by themselves instead of the help of many other nations? again no. smart nations are a deterrent in their own right - plus they manage proxies and alliances at the same time. The brits were in the game for 300 years because they knew the basics. what other maritime nation gets anywhere near and close to longevity, depth of commerce, depth of military and safe from transnational war? They had a powerful navy that was capable until late 1930s of defeating any singular navy in the world anywhere in the world, but naval power doesn't equal 'the most powerful military of all time in terms of global percentage' now does it? study the basics. look at Mahans treatise on naval power. it was a truism then - its a truism now. what other military and commercial power in that 300+ year cycle came close? what kept the brits in control of their slocs - and thus their capacity to fund a navy to such strength? Fisher oversighted the most far reaching changes in any navy during victorias time - and nobody came close. the two power philosophy helped to break her enemies on a spending curve - but it also kept her ahead of the pack. name one european power (let alone 2 combined powers) that could contest the poms just in victorias time "And it's pretty easy to build an empire internationally when your main competitors are too busy fighting with themselves on the continent..." so what? the definition of strategy is to stay ahead of the pack, minimise your own involvement, fight with proxies and pick up the results. every major military nation be it mongols, romans, greeks etc... bought in proxies at some point in time. only a moron will go and fight the good fight when they don;t have to and get someone else to do it. "The French Empire alone in the late 1930s numbered around 100m and occupied roughly 1/5th of the world in area..." LOL and it was smaller and never ever equaled the trading and geographical diversity of the poms. you've got to be joking if you are going to use them as an example and counterweight to your argument. The Brit Empire right up until 1947 dwarfed the French colonial repository.
 
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The Lizard King    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 12:19:19 PM
"at once stage they dominated 1/4 of the known world" Yes, but of undeveloped peoples/lands/nations. The Germans, Romans, and Greeks, held advanced peoples/nations. "they never lost their empire due to military conflict." World War II....
 
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gf0012-aust    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 1:02:15 PM
"at once stage they dominated 1/4 of the known world" Yes, but of undeveloped peoples/lands/nations. The Germans, Romans, and Greeks, held advanced peoples/nations. and measured against the wealth that the Brit empire generated - the germans had nothing - what empire did they ever have of note from 1870 to 1945? Not a sausage. they picked up fragemented colonies in africa that the french and english didn't want and bits of the islands in and around new guinea - which they lost to australia under treaty conditions re Gt Britain, in terms of intercontinental non contiguous ownership - they had more than any other nation on earth - before or since. Canada, Sth Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India were the wealthiest of any of the acquired colonies of the european powers. "they never lost their empire due to military conflict." World War II.... " what history books are you reading? what parts of their empire did they lose? unlike the french who tried to hold onto the last vestiges of their colonies - the brits gave their larger colonies independance and fundamentally kept the links intact without costing them in maintenance. what colonies did they lose as a result of WW2? None. Nada, Zip Zero Zilch. Germany lost all of hers in both world wars - apart from the fact that germany wasn't a country until after bismark wired up all the states - what empire of note did they have, retain for any reasonable period of time and benefit from? Ans: None. Geeezuz, Belgium and Portugal had bigger colonial empires and held them together longer than the germans ever did. for crying out loud the dutch colonial empire makes the germans look like beginners (which they were).
 
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DarthAmerica    Spirit of 76 -- gf   1/13/2006 1:10:52 PM
>>>"they never lost their empire due to military conflict."<<< ---I'd say they didnt lose to a single military loss. But a series of events the most significant in my opinion being the American Revolution which was a military defeat.
 
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gf0012-aust    RE:Most Powerful Military of All Time in Terms of Global Percentage    1/13/2006 1:17:48 PM
"Yes, but of undeveloped peoples/lands/nations. The Germans, Romans, and Greeks, held advanced peoples/nations." are you serious about the romans conquering advanced nations? they got chewed up by the tarters. they conquered advanced tribes like the gauls, goths, teutons, druids, celts ... none of those tribes were regarded as advanced. the only serious player was carthage. you only have to look at the punic wars to see how successful they were. greece - sure they are the symbolic favourites - but the know world was measured in terms of days chariot ride - and they effectively were a country when one state was smart enough to do a bismark and force a single country into the mix. thats like saying that the original 13 states of the US were the known world. as far as actual mass is concerned. greece was an exceptional military power - but she was the regional superpower. if you're going to have these surveys then they need to have some reality checked into place and not play emotional favourites (or bias) as is the want of some. whether people like it or not, for 300 years the poms had the largest non contiguous intercontinental empire the world has ever seen. not some dicky empire that was created by joining the dots on neighbouring states within 2 months horseriding distance. on that basis the mongols make all of the euro/asia minor land powers look like beginners.
 
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