The Post-American World

On June 22, 1897, the British Empire, at the peak of its power, celebrated the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign in a massive display of grandeur. It seemed at that moment that Britain was impervious to history. The British Empire was a remarkable institution, having “created the first truly global market” and making its culture—namely the English language—ubiquitous (186). By 1897, Britain could merit favorable comparisons to the Romans, but it would soon find itself on the path of decline. In 1899, it fought a costly war against the Boers in South Africa. By the turn of the 20th century, its economic output was less than Germany’s and significantly less than that of the United States.

Its rate of economic growth had slowed to a crawl, and whatever the limits of its culture or political system, it would have been very difficult for such a small country to catch up with the rise of continent-states like the US and Russia. Zakaria clarifies that “[t]he fundamental point is that Britain was undone as a great power not because of bad politics but because of bad economics. It had great global influence, but its economy was structurally weak” (197). Britain had wisely decided to accept the rise of the US as a peer competitor rather than challenge it, but its interests in other parts of the world were so far-flung that it could never fund any of them sufficiently.