9mm was the service caliber in most of Europe.

Official calibers tend to stay official.

Europe also ended up favoring magazine capacity earlier then the US, which tended to favor stopping power up until the 1980's.

Availability, price, usefulness. In most places there were a host of other guns in more common and easily shootable/cheaper calibers. There's also a host of much smaller and lighter pocket guns. Then as now, most people carrying off-duty have something in the pocket gun realm, not a big old 1911 or similar fullsize gun - that's gun nerd territory. This goes double if you're carrying in a place where it's technically illegal. Why bother with a big old American hand-cannon when you can get a pocket Mauser or Walther? Maybe if you've got a bunch of surplus 1911s around for dirt cheap and not a lot else, it would make sense.

Military service caliber, sure. And the HiPower was pretty widespread... but the police service caliber was usually 32 ACP up until the 70s, in the aftermath of Munich if memory serves. I think the Swedes were still using Walther PPs in .32 in the early 2000s/late 90s.

9mm is the reason 45ACP never caught on in the rest of the world.  
9mm is even more popular then 45ACP in the US.

The lack of a 2nd Amendment and strict gun control.  You shoot what the gov't allows you to shoot if you can even own guns at all.

Some countries have weird restrictions.

I don't think it was so much that, as it was that we saw no reason to replace our service handgun. As has already been mentioned here, handguns aren't a primary military fighting weapon so there is less push to keep them on the cutting edge than there is with other military equipment.



I know everyone here likes to shit on calibers that are not 9mm, specifically .40 S&W, but the reality is that .40 was used for a long time because bullet technology allowed it to meet a set of criteria that 9mm could not. It is only with more recent bullet technology that 9mm has been able to meet those criteria. 9mm is a better round than it used to be due to +P and +P+ loadings, as well as contemporary bullet construction.

To follow up on my earlier comment, Mexico might be an example of a country restricting the use of so-called 'military' handgun calibers, but some South American countries did adopt, or least arm certain L.E. and Mil units with, semi-autos chambered in .45acp, most notably Argentina. I *think* also Chile may have been another to do so.

I have one of what's known as the ''Argy Colts'  -  that being a .45acp 1932 Colt Commercial (in 1911A1 trim). It was shipped to the Buenos Aires Capital Police, where they promptly stamped the left side of the slide with:  'Policia De La Capital,' along with property numbers stamped on the barrel, slide and frame.

How long the B.A. cops had it, I have no idea, and while the gun does show a significant amount to of wear and scratches, all the parts appear original and correct for a 1932 Commercial, and it fires and functions perfectly. It's actually a decent shooter.

Fun fact:  So is 38 Super.

But not 10mm AUTO, even though, technically, it IS in fact a 'military caliber,' ... albeit of another country, Denmark, as chambered in the issued sidearm of the Danish Sledge Patrol Sirius units operating in the Arctic regions of Greenland, the Gen4 Glock 20.

Gross

Put another 500rds through my 2 m45s on wednesday. Damn I love these things. All cleaned up ready for another round. Attached File

As mentioned earlier from about 1914 to the 1950’s there were a good number of countries that used .45’s.
Also bear in mind up to about 1980, 45 was synonymous with 1911 and until about that time if you wanted a 1911 the only choice was Colt. There were a very few other pistols chambered in it but those are pretty limited in the big picture.
9mm handguns after WWII evolved in many different directions and designs ( even the US military flirted with replacing the 45/1911 in the 1950:s, until they concluded the millions of 1911’s in stock and associated ammo was good enough despite not being nato standard )
While 45 remained a 1911 thing.
While many are enamored with 1911’s lots of people don’t and also prior to about 1980 or so the concept of cocked and locked carry wasn’t popular either.
From a general use and issue standpoint there were better designs by that time with higher mag capacity and considered “safer” for mass use.

It is really only a relatively short period of time ( last 30 years or so that the 45 has become common in designs other than 1911.

Many countries are allergic to testosterone

God Bless Sgt Baker, Hero of Heroes