[dh2022]

Colonial empires (Spanish Empire, Belgian Empire, French Empire, British Empire) existed long before the two world wars. I venture to say that both world wars were caused by German reunification of 1871. This created a country too big to be dominated by Europe but not big enough to dominate Europe. This problem was solved for quite a while by Otto von Bismarck. Unfortunately he became old and lost influence to the idiot Kaiser Wilhelm II.The rest, as they say, is history.

I also venture to say that colonialism is dead and we will not see empires in the 20th century sense of the word. The troubles Russia has in the Ukraine seem to indicate vast land grabs belong to the history books.

[motorest]

> The troubles Russia has in the Ukraine seem to indicate vast land grabs belong to the history books.

I don't agree. Russia was successful in it's land grab of Chechnya and Georgia. Russia was convinced it's invasion of Ukraine would be a 3 day cake walk, and reportedly their followup step would be to use their blitzkrieg of Ukraine to annex the Baltic nations and Moldova, and force NATO to abandon both Poland and Romania, thus destroying NATO.

In the meantime, China is preparing to invade Taiwan.

Just because Russia failed miserably in it's invasion of Ukraine that doesn't mean land grabs belong to history books.

[hulitu]

> I also venture to say that colonialism is dead and we will not see empires in the 20th century sense of the word.

cough* USA cough*. Has colonized Europe, Australia and New Zeeland and is fighting hard to extend its influence in Latin America and Asia

[cafard]

New Zealand? Are you blaming us for Peter Thiel? That seems a bit harsh.

"to extend its influence in Latin America". Its influence could hardly be more extensive there; it gets (we get) sniffy when the occasional country there pushes back.

Asia, I don't know. Our ventures there have had very mixed success...

[sigmoid10]

>The troubles Russia has in the Ukraine seem to indicate vast land grabs belong to the history books.

Well, not for lack of trying. If Russia's military were actually competent and not a clusterfuck of corruption and lies, the world might look different now. And it's not like they haven't done the exact same thing to weaker countries without western support in the recent past. If Russia were successful this time, China might also feel emboldened on the whole Taiwan thing. And who knows how far Trump and Netanyahu will go with their ideas for the middle east.