whatever happened to Britain or the UK or England or whatever they're calling it.

We can't even agree on what it's called, but England, the England that if you're over 50,

you grew up learning about, the England that controlled the world,

the England that ran the largest empire in human history.

At the end of World War I, Britain, which is an island in a pretty

unhospitable climate, controlled literally a quarter of the Earth's surface and not controlled

in the way the United States controls the rest of the world with an implied threat or with economic ties to trade, but actually

controlled with administrators and people sitting at desks with eyeshades, counting things,

like actually controlled a quarter of the earth's surface, way more than Rome, way more

than the Mongols, way more than anybody ever, or maybe in the

future, ever. Britain was the most powerful country in the history of the world. And then 25 years later,

it was this kind of sad, soggy welfare state, which is to some extent what it still is,

except maybe even a little bit worse.

What happened?

Well, there are a couple levels on which to think about this.

First, it's just geopolitical.

And I guess they spent a lot of money in these wars

and the ruling, you know, half the class of Eaton,

1910 was killed in the trenches or whatever.

You can think of a lot of different ways to explain what happened to Britain.

The fact remains, however, they won the two biggest wars in human history.

They won, and yet they're still greatly diminished and to some extent humiliated.

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