[awkwardtortoise]

Every "strong" country today became strong via theft, protectionism and mercantilism. And once a country became strong, they expanded/colonized/etc and then supported "free" trade.

There isn't a greater example of this than the US. We stole all kinds of tech from the british/europe and then protected our industries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism_in_the_United_St...

It's how our nascent industries developed in the US. Without protectionism, all our industries would have been dominated by european companies.