If we believe in all humans being decedents of Adam and Eve there is simply no question of race. As far as intelligence goes, I have taught in US universities, and now here, and kids from all sorts of so-called races i.e. Caucasians, African Americans, Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Malays have been my students. I have not noticed that any one particular race did better than the other, and if there was some difference, it was in effort/hard work and not in intelligence. You are right, it is not that British were very tough or smart, they were simply pitting against weaker enemies that were poorly equipped (in terms of technology and training), and divided.