why is a leiutenant general higher than a major general, when a major is higher ranked than a leiutenant?

Answer 1

The rank structure emerged from Oliver Cromwell's "New Model Army" from the English Civil War. The original ranking of general officers was as follows:

Captain General
Lieutenant General
Sergeant-Major General
Brigadier General.

For simplicity's sake. Over the years, the "captain" was dropped; and the highest rank simply became "General." And the "Sergeant" was also dropped, leaving only "Major." So now we have the present system:

General
Lieutenant General
Major General
Brigadier General.

Okay?

Answer 2

Interesting question! The rank "lieutenant" is derived from "in lieu of" to depict an official who was authorized to act or take decisions when his/her superior was not around to do so. Therefore, a General's immediate deputy would be a "Lieutenant General." A Second Lieutenant or Lieutenant is the juniormost officer cadre rank in most armed forces and it again implies that they are authorized to act only in the absence of a more senior officer. If you go through most of the provisions of law (in the Indian Army at least...), you will find text like... "use of force may be authorized by an officer not less than the rank of a Captain in the army....."
One cannot look at the ranks in isolation and apply the logic you have used in your question, even though it may seem sensible. The "major" in Major General has nothing to do with the "major" in just Major.

Answer 3

Jack is correct. It was originally Sergeant Major General then Lieutenant General in the old British system. Over time the "sergeant" was dropped from the name and it just became Major General.

Answer 4

There is a principle in the Military that has been largely forgotten lately in America, the leadership class in the Military are no less servants of the Constitutional Leadership up the chain of Command to the President of the United States than the uniformed Military Leaders are sworn to take care of the soldiers, sailors, Marines and Coast Guard down through the ranks to the lowest ranking member of the United States Military.
The Enlisted are sworn to follow orders, but the Commissioned Offices are sworn to care of the troops under their command.
The torture episodes during Iraq have resulted in lower ranking members of the Military going to prison, but no upper ranking Officers have been held responsible to date.
This is a broken promise to all of those who have served in the military as lower ranking enlisted troops who in war time do most of the dying and sacrifice for the Country.
This has to be made right, or the quality of the service members will in time be harmed. The reason lieutenant is a higher designation followed by General is in honor of the sacrifice by the lowest ranking Officers in the Military, the Lieutenant.

Answer 5

because once you enter the field of general,the definition changes.

Answer 6

Because the military is weird like that.
It's just to keep you on your toes.

Answer 7

That bothered me, too. I think it is similar to being "next"?
But I'm not positive.