The fact that these idiots managed to literally own half the world at one point in time is quite baffling to me. Actually distinguished mentally-challenged is how I view most of the British public and all of the leadership class.
Like, what level of fucked up circumstances in the rest of the world lead to this rabble being so successful?
It was literally just the fact that unlike everybody else they were on an island and united under one banner quite early.
They didn't have to worry about being attacked or looted. In most wars England was ignored simply because it couldn't be reached.
The Nazis in WW2 nearly succeeded taking them out from the air but even they didn't have the naval resources to move enough troops overseas.
If you look at their encounters on land (against European nations with the same level of technology) they didn't do so well.
Usually when their 'divided' enemies started to work together it ended bad for Ingerland. In France, the United States etc. .
Their enemies united under a banner and kicked them out.
They used this tactic against their enemies too though, the Dutch Republic was surrounded by monarchs on all sides and they all wanted a piece of the pie. We had to hire mercenary armies to bolster our numbers depleting the treasury.
But even if we won all the sea battles and had the strongest navy it couldn't fight without the support from home.
England also got lucky with their monarchs. In many European nations there was usually one 'great' king or queen followed by a bunch of bastards, sadists and fuck-ups or sometimes a 10 year old because dad died when he fell from his horse.
They also didn't spend a ton of resources on expensive military campaigns like the French who marched on Russia under Napoleon for example.
