[henry_thefirst]

"I would argue that Britain was still a superior overall power to the United States right up to WWI, which wore down the British Empire greatly, and then the WWII Axis killed off its remnants."

I think you are correct in this statement, but i'd like to point out a few things. In 1914, Britain was the most powerful "world" power, but Germany was the most powerful land power. Its interesting to note that it took the world power and two other strong powers (France, the 2nd most land power at the time and the United States, the up and coming Naval power) to defeat Germany, and at a very severe cost. What this points out to me is that Britain's power was actually very limited in some degree, and could not be easily reflected upon the battlefields of France.

[MeanWestTexan]

England could easily project its power elsewhere, Germany less so; therein lies the difference.

One could probably make the same comparison between the US and China now.

[Da_Shrimp]

Oh and I should also add that William the Conqueror brought over the Civil Law of Rome when he invaded England. It did not survive. The established English sytstem of county courts and trial by jury survived in spite of the Norman jackboot.