Thread: Modern Major Powers and Standing Armies

Originally Posted by BFD15

Other than the U.S there is really no other military power.

I beg to differ... to correct your statement here... other then the U.S., there is no other superpower.... there are plenty of military powers in the world... U.S. is just the top one...

What countries would you classify as major powers? And on what basis?

Strong economy, Strong military and a whole lot of political leverage.

Any disputes between Canada and the U.S are settled in a civil manner in the courts .

Actually, the disputes are still ongoing... The U.S. considers the Northern Pass as international waters and Canada I believe considers them to be Canadian territory. The only way to settle this would be either America gives up its claim that the Northern Part is international waters (which seems very unlikely that US will do that.) OR Canada gives up its claim to the North, (which I highly doubt Canada will freely give up territory which it claims to be hers).

There is probably not any two countries in the world that interact in a closer relationship than America and America jr. It probably stems from our shared heritage.

Thats probably true... And its probably because America pretty much already owns Canada, using its economy.

Mmm, fair point. Canada has power projection that truly makes a difference.

Maybe I'm too ignorant of other nations' histories to frame the question properly. I know that a standing army was anathema to OUR Founding Fathers, but I have little understanding of what was the norm for the early 19th century powers. Wasn't it Napoleon, and his large "citizen armies", that spurred the other Great Powers to create large forces? Did the sizes wax and wane with every war?

-dale

Actually, the disputes are still ongoing... The U.S. considers the Northern Pass as international waters and Canada I believe considers them to be Canadian territory. The only way to settle this would be either America gives up its claim that the Northern Part is international waters (which seems very unlikely that US will do that.) OR Canada gives up its claim to the North, (which I highly doubt Canada will freely give up territory which it claims to be hers).

The dispute has alot to do with Global warming, if the ice melts the mythical northwest passage opens up. This could be a huge seaborne highway and the tax/tariff figures are staggering.

The US and Canada will settle it as they always do, in court or via treaty that leaves both sides unhappy.

The US and Canada are always sueing each other in court, softlumber, salmon, grain, borders etc. But each side trust sthe legal systme to decide the issue, somethign for India and Pakistan to look at.

Maybe I'm too ignorant of other nations' histories to frame the question properly. I know that a standing army was anathema to OUR Founding Fathers, but I have little understanding of what was the norm for the early 19th century powers. Wasn't it Napoleon, and his large "citizen armies", that spurred the other Great Powers to create large forces? Did the sizes wax and wane with every war?

The armies got smaller after Nap in an attempt to put the geine back into the bottle on revolutionary large scale warfare. Writers like Jomini who preached small scale wars grew in popularity from the conservative rulers and their military thinkers. Jomini was writing at the time when people wanted to forget about what had happened and roll back the clock.

They made a delibrate shift to go back to pre Nap warfare, limited scale dynastic clashes. They hoped to put the lid back on all of the evil things from the French revolution like nationalism, republicism and large armies feeding off their crops.

dalem,

Mmm, fair point. Canada has power projection that truly makes a difference.

Maybe I'm too ignorant of other nations' histories to frame the question properly. I know that a standing army was anathema to OUR Founding Fathers, but I have little understanding of what was the norm for the early 19th century powers. Wasn't it Napoleon, and his large "citizen armies", that spurred the other Great Powers to create large forces? Did the sizes wax and wane with every war?

-dale

not really. the british did quite well with a small standing army, and the germans needed until the 1860s to organize something along those lines.

a large standing army needed nationalism, logistics, state capability, and resources. nationalism was anathema for most of the european states until the uprisings and revolutions of 1830 and 1848 started to convince rulers that it was force that could not be denied, and actually had benefits.

and later consolidation of both government and nation throughout the 19th century gave them logistics, state capability, and resources.

the large armies that confronted napoleon were fairly hastily put together.

Originally Posted by astralis

not really. the british did quite well with a small standing army, and the germans needed until the 1860s to organize something along those lines.

That's a myth. Once you add in the Colonial Regiments, especially India's, then the Brits ground strength was not all that small.

That's a myth. Once you add in the Colonial Regiments, especially India's, then the Brits ground strength was not all that small.

it was relatively small compared to the amount of territory and number of people they lorded over. kitchener's pre-WWI indian army was 150K troops, most of whom were, well, indian. and india had what, around 250 million people at the time.

Originally Posted by astralis

it was relatively small compared to the amount of territory and number of people they lorded over. kitchener's pre-WWI indian army was 150K troops, most of whom were, well, indian. and india had what, around 250 million people at the time.

The British Empire copied the Roman Empire quite slavishly (because they admired their achievements so) including creating army units from the local population and installing British officers and some NCOs. It was the Royal Navy the government spent the most money on, and it was the largest, most modern and powerful navy in the world for over 100 years.