Strongest Countries of the World Before World War II

Can you name the modern-day countries that had the most active military personnel in 1938, one year before the beginning of World War II?
According to the Correlates of War database.
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MeowILoveCats123
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Last updated: September 14, 2025
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First submittedSeptember 14, 2025
Times taken37
Average score75.0%
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Active Military Personnel (1938)
Country
1,789,000
Russia
900,000
China
782,000
Germany
581,000
France
550,000
Spain
486,000
Italy
376,000
United Kingdom
370,000
Japan
323,000
United States
308,000
Poland
211,000
Türkiye
169,000
Romania
163,000
Czechia
103,000
Afghanistan
97,000
Brazil
95,000
Greece
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1 Comments
+1
Level 67
Sep 14, 2025
Some things to note:

1. Correlates of War gave Yugoslavia an active military personnel count of 144,000 in 1938. It's unlikely any of the modern-day countries in Yugoslavia had at least 95,000 active military personnel in 1938, though, so we've excluded all countries in Yugoslavia.

2. Correlates of War also gave Czechoslovakia an active military count of 163,000 in 1938. Although the figure we gave Czechia (163,000) might be inaccurate, it's very likely Czechia would've still been on this list.