Who Was a Superpower Before America?
The word "superpower" was coined in 1944 by William T.R. Fox to describe exactly three countries: the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain. So what happens when you try to apply it to Akkad, Assyria, Persia, and Rome? This episode works through a listener's request for a chronological list of superpowers from the oldest recorded history to today — and runs straight into a definitional problem that no two sources agree on. There is no single canonical list, the criteria shift between the ancient, medieval, and modern periods, and the anachronism runs in both directions. Episode 5498 —…
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