Reply #219: That fellow is almost certainly correct. [View All]

[sofa king]

According to this .pdf document, the population of the United Kingdom in 1901 was 38 million and only increased after that.

In both world wars, the Germans astutely recognized that the U.K. subsisted only through overseas imports, and sought to choke off those supplies through commerce raiding. In both cases, there was a point in time where the Germans were on a pace to succeed.

The U.K. has its own furious debates over whether or not the nation should maintain its empire and whether or not it should continue to sink a huge amount of money into its navy. As long as the population of the U.K. remains above the sustainability of the home islands, however, they will have to invest heavily in a navy to protect their people, or else risk the lives of millions.