The fact that from 1600 to 1900s, the world was ruled by British, but I can’t name a single king/queen or head of state of them astounds me!
Whereas on the other hand, I remember Indian kings, Roman Emperors and Greek leaders super easily
The answer I think is counter-intuitive. The reason I don’t remember British leader names is cuz they just weren’t important
You see, in 1600s Europeans had invented something called joint-stock companies. For the first time, shareholders can pursue their economic incentive and start trading (or conquests)
Hence, the real-deals were the joint-stock companies i.e. East India Company & Dutch East India Company. What is super cool is how ingenuous this system really is!
Consider this, why did the great empires like Greek, Roman, Mugha fall? 2 words:- Bad rulers
British changed that:- Now the success of empire doesn’t depend upon the effectiveness of a king, but rather on the effectiveness of the joint-stock companies.
And u can count on companies to be effective. Why? One word:- Greed. They have to bring returns to shareholders else they’ll be removed. Hence, emerged a British Empire which ruled from Sun Sets to Sun Rises
More cooler aspect here is that this proves that US is still not out-of-the game. You can give it the worst leaders:- Trump, Biden.
But still the ‘joint-stock companies’ will be effective.
@OpenAI will build AGI,
@SpaceX will reach Mars;
@hermeuscorp will build Mach-5 planes;
@Helion_Energy will build nuclear fusion. Making the American Empire win for another century
@IBM will invent Quantum computers