What is so special about Britain in Harry Potter?

Question

In Harry Potter, a lot of big stuff goes down in Great Britain. From the foundation of Hogwarts by 4 of the most powerful sorcerers of medieval times to the days of Grindelwald and Dumbledore, to the wars waged by Tom Riddle, and his ultimate defeat by a British resistance.

What was going on in the rest of the world? Why didn't any of them pitch in? Weren't they strong enough? Did they deal with similar troubles themselves?

Answer 1

The books are set in Britain, so they focus on British events.

Founding of Hogwarts

This is the British school. There is an American school too - Ilvermorny. However, remember that Hogwarts was founded around the year 1000. The Americas weren't colonized then - the world was very different.

Grindelwald and Dumbledore

This also took place in the Americas - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has Grindelwald and Dumbledore as some central plot points - not going into detail for spoilers.

Tom Riddle

Well yes... He was British, so the British had to take care of him. The Americas have most likely had their share of Dark Wizards too.

Conclusion

The books focus on Britain because J. K. Rowling is British; and other things do happen in the other parts of the world, we just don't see them because it's set in Britain.

Answer 2

The events you list are indeed rather important... to British wizards. Foreign wizards don't attend Hogwarts and don't live in Britain. Their civil wars would affect a Nigerian wizard about as much as the Syrian War affects someone in the UK.

The only truly "international" involvement you listed was Dumbledore defeating Grindelwald (strongly implied to be German, and the true power behind Adolf Hitler). There, British wizards' involvement was largely coincidental, a result of Grindelwald happening to have a British aunt and happening to become childhood friends with a bright young Briton.

To the other question of why other nation's wizards didn't interfere in the war against Voldemort... why would they? The UK defeated him the first time on their own, and the second time he quietly seized control of the government. They didn't need to request help the first time, and wouldn't have the second time.

Answer 3

The other two answers that imply that the series are merely focused on British affairs, further implying that comparably significant events were happening in other countries as well, are wrong in the sense that a lot of events are more or less implicitly stated to be unique on the global scale. To name just a few:

• Harry is the only person to survive the killing curse, whose very name implies that it is not a British invention.
• Voldemort had made six times the amount of horcruxes the previous global record-holder in that respect, a Greek wizard, had.
• Just recently, reading other questions, I was reminded of a passage saying that Harry's and Voldemort's souls 'were intertwined more than any other wizards' in history'.
• The lone fact that a profoundly powerful wizard was not only 'defeated' by a baby, but kept being thwarted by a kid.
• The Deathly Hallows, arguably the most potent class of items possible (especially the ring), are British-made, outnumbering the comparable in terms of power Philosopher's Stone three-to-one.

Edit: Oh sheesh why it is so. As I said in the comment, there seems to hardly be a non-chauvinistic answer one way or another, if we're rejecting the obvious 'it is so because the author is British'. Perhaps that angle could be subverted after a fashion by saying that the answer is that Britain is an intellectually backwards country in a remote corner of Europe, therefore it's lagging behind all other countries with respect to its Muggle population per capita (it's, say, 98 % while other countries' is 99 %), therefore it's naturally a focal point for global magic events too, compared to equally populous nations. (Is joke no ban pls.)