The British Empire was not an efficiently planned machine. Its administrators could be highly educated while still making poor long-term infrastructure decisions. The system grew through short-term measures intended to maximize profit within a mercantilist worldview. That logic explains how a huge network could accumulate without providing the connections later campaigns and populations most needed. Conquered and displaced peoples did not choose the imperial system imposed on them.
Notable Point · 35:24-36:32
Mercantilist expansion rewarded short-term logistics
The British imperial network could be vast yet inefficient because it grew through short-term, profit-seeking measures rather than a consistently planned transport strategy.