Is Superpower A Superpower?

A superpower is a country which exerts influence and power onto other countries through their military, economic growth, GDP, resources, physical size, population and belief systems. A superpower is referred to as a dominant global force in which the USA, China and the EU are all thought to be part of. In order to analyse whether a country may be a superpower or not is through a superpower index whereby the factors of population, GNP, TNC headquarters, patent filings and oil reserves are considered.

Prior to World War I, Britain was the most imperialistic country in the world. The British Empire occupied more than a quarter of the world, which spread over five continents and France controlled most of Africa. Because of this control the rivalry with Germany and Italy had increased, they decided they wanted a colonial empire also.

Empire. Firstly, it meant a great expansion of British territorial claims in the New World.

China remains a current world super power that has been around for thousands of years. It was one of the first civilizations ever created and it has evolved into an enormous country. China is a large territory, but only 10% of the land can be farmed on. This continues to be a tremendous problem, especially with the large population that mostly lives in rural areas. In the past China was seen as a fragile nation that was still stuck in the past, although after the Four Humiliations this began to change. The Four Humiliations were a group of events that forced China to modernize due to the losses it faced. After the last of the four humiliations and the fall of the dynasty era during 1911, China began to catch up to the westernized world by modernizing their government, military, and education. The Chinese

spanned around the globe. Britain’s colonial empire, in the making since the early 1700’s, still

Imperialism is the domination of a weaker country by a stronger country. For instance Britain dominated India and China in the mid 1880s to the beginning of the 20th century. Imperialism has had both a positive and negative effects on the countries involved. Britain was imperialistic for many reasons, it could dominate because it had the technology and power to do so. They also needed land to acquire raw materials for growing markets.

China is an example of an emerging superpower; its economy has doubled in size every eight years since 1980. Since 2000, China has been the largest recipient of overseas investment, and now foreign-owned companies . 60% of the world trade since 2004 has been as a result of Chinas industrialisation. So here we can see that China has developed due to industrialisation, which has increased its power. China use to be a low-income country, so we can see from a low-income country to an emerging superpower how powers can shift over time due to many factors that influence the world. However even though China is an emerging superpower, it has come with some cost to the environment for example China has 16 of the top 20 most air-polluted cities in the world. The polluted air was blamed for over 4000 000 premature deaths in 2003.

Power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. Like Adolf Hitler and the play Macbeth, it is clear that power can be used in

In the 16th century Britain began to establish overseas colonies and by 1783 they had a large empire with colonies throughout the world including America, the West Indies and India. How did they achieve this? It was through imperialism. Imperialism is the state policy whereby new British territories were obtained by extending power and control over them. Imperialism is morally reprehensible and although it benefited the British, the impact of British colonisation of these countries was never overly beneficial for the indigenous peoples.

History.com states that imperialism is a system which the nation is very powerful, which it controls and feats one or more colonies. With this group, it is known as the ‘mother country’. It is referred to this because they control their colonies by intimidating them. Before the World War I Great Britain was the largest and richest and had the most dominant imperial powers. The imperial power of Britain’s was strengthened by the commanding navy and the commercial vessels.

The Imperialism is one of the greatest periods in Britain’s history. Throughout this period Britain enjoyed almost unchallenged dominance and expanded its imperial holdings around the globe. Britain experienced what is it to be the most powerful country and to have the biggest empire in the world. Thanks to the overseas possessions and trading posts established by Britain earlier, the British Empire became the largest empire in history.

Before World War I, Britain ruled the world with imperialism in the late 1800s. Britain conquered many nations to become really rich and powerful. For example, Britain had one quarter of the globe under its belt; that means the sun never set on the British Empire. Britain ruled over Canada, India, Ceylon,

In regards to international relations, power is influence and control one state has over another. Often times, state power is an indication of economic and military strength. According to Joseph Nye, the concept of using economic and military forces to coerce other political bodies is known as hard power. In contrast,

It respects less developed nations' independence. In this way, the superpower becomes somewhat isolationist, because a superpower usually has the ability to be self-reliant if needs be. Indeed, it follows that if the superpower does in fact simply preside over itself, it will eventually become isolationist. A major problem with this approach is that it may cause a superpower to consume its resources, so then when it attempts to regain its authority over the rest of the world after being isolationist for so long and now having limited resources, it is no longer an intimidating force, and thus loses its superpower supremacy. The original empire of China was technologically superior to the rest of the world at that time, but it was isolationist and eventually overtaken as the rest of the world advanced (Further information located in Encarta Encyclopedia for Windows).

While China may have the economic means to compete, they do not have the dominant military force the United States has. “United States is the only country with the means to invade multiple medium-size countries in other continents and still sustain very few casualties. No other country currently is even near having the ability to project military power with such force and range” (Internet Source). The combination of economic stability and military power has led to the United States large impact in the international system. Hegemonic responsibilities are always put on the world’s dominant power. The United States has dealt with these responsibilities for many decades and has proven its ability to lead the world in a harmonious way. Anna Applebaum from the dWashington Post writes: “The United States is a superpower without a partner,” meaning that the United States has handled the world as a dominant power for this long and is not losing grasp of that.