In the 19th century a small country like Britain controlled a large portion of the world because Britain was a naval power and they had technology and so forth.
They could go into China and punish the Chinese to the extent that the Chinese had to gift them an Island - Hong Kong in 1842 or 1843 and get the Chinese to pay them a huge quantity of silver coins. When you think of it nowadays Britain wants anything, the Chinese will tell them to go to hell. Its a different world. There has been a huge change structure of global power.
