ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, the world was under British hegemony. The British had the largest empire in history of the world in 1900, amounting to one-fifth of the world's land surface and a quarter of the globe's population. The British Empire was at the peak of its golden age as the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, and their golden age continued for much of that century. The golden age of England started to fray shortly after nations such as France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, and USSR increased their tariffs to protect their industries by shutting out British goods. The United States was at the peak of its golden age at the end of World War II, as Britain was after the Napoleonic Wars, and the US golden age continued for several decades after that.
