The Military Power of the World

This colorful compilation of bar graphs visualizes the military expenditures of various nations in the late 1880s. Some interesting trends can be deciphered from the chart, including the huge discrepancy between America’s peacetime and war strengths (35,000 vs. 3.1 million), France’s unquestioned status as the largest fighting force in Europe (on paper), and British supremacy of the seas (in terms of expenditure). Japan is largely overlooked, possibly due to a paucity of available data. The sheet was originally issued in the 1887 edition of Gaskell’s New and Complete Family Atlas. The volume, published in Chicago by Fairbanks & Palmer Publishing, featured maps by cartographer George Cram.