what does each permanent country in the UN have in common? why are these the 5 permanent countires?

Question

How come Great Britain, USA, Russia, China, and France are the 5 permanent countries that are in the UN ? What do they have in common that makes them be the permanent ones?

i know that they created a lot of the UN and stuff like that. i was wondering why THEY are the 5 permanent countries and not someone such as Japan or Spain. What do they have in common that makes then suitable for the role of permanecy on the security counsel?

Answer 1

nothing

Answer 2

Well to be exact, they weren't just the dominant countries after WW2... they were the Winners of WW2, which is why they set up the UN the way they did, with themselves at the top of the Security Council with no way in for anybody else.

The Winners not only get to write History. They also get to make the Future as well. Unfortunately, Might still makes right in our world.

Which is why the UN is NOT a democratic organization, and is therefore easily manipulated or blocked by its most powerful 5 members.

By the way, these 5 also share one other thing in common.

They are the top 5 biggest arms producers/exporters/dealers on the Planet, and all are nuclear capable. Not surprisingly, their governments also spend the most on the military, with the exception of France, which is #6 (Japan is #5). No wonder the UN isn't very effective in stopping wars & promoting world peace.

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp

Answer 3

John T is correct. The founding members of the UN following WW-2 were Russia, Britain, France (the Free French Union based in London during the war), The USA and the Chinese (which at that time included both the Nationalists and the Communists). All were fighting against the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, Italy).
When the Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 the Nationalist government in Taiwan were the UN representatives until sometime in the late 1970's and then it was changed to Mainland (Communist) China.
The first President of the United Nations was an Australian, another country that fought alongside Britain/US etc.

Answer 4

They were the dominant countries at the end of WWII, when the UN was founded. At the time, Britain and France had extensive colonies.

The Soviet Union had spent incredible efforts to defeat Germany, the Chinese lost immense number to defeat the Japanese, the US fought both of the major players of the Axis. In order to get them to agree to join, the big 5 countries were given the ability to veto Security Council actions.

Answer 5

Those are the five countries permanently on the security counsel. They were the most powerful countries involved in creating the UN after WWII -- except Russia was then the Soviet Union. So they imposed a rule where they were always on the security counsel.