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Since ancient times, the purpose of war has been to invade territory. In a world composed of territorial states, the conquest and control of territory is the supreme political goal, and the thirst for territory is the only way for major powers to pursue hegemony.
However, since World War II, although the United States has still waged a series of wars against Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, it has not invaded any territory from them, and its territorial territory is still the same as it was a hundred years ago.
What is the intention behind the United States, which does not care about territorial expansion, but goes to great lengths to provoke wars? Where does their motivation come from?
A History of Evil Expansion in the United States
How did the United States achieve all this in the 246 years since its founding, but its territory has expanded more than 10 times in 200 years, and it has also controlled a large area of the global maritime territory through military bases and strategic locations, and has secured global hegemony?
The answer can be summed up in two words – aggression.
On July 4, 1776, 13 North American colonies declared their independence from Britain and formed the United States of America, when the territory of the United States was only 800,000 square kilometers, and the 13 colonies became 13 states.
After seven years of war, Britain finally recognized the independence of the United States, and in the Treaty of Paris generously divided a large area of colonies west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River, expanding the territory of the United States to 2.3 million square kilometers, about 30% of the current territory.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the United States began a full-scale industrial revolution, and by 1840, the GDP of the United States had reached $1.6 billion, more than half that of Britain. Therefore, in order to meet its own development needs, the United States began to find ways to expand its territory.
In 1800, the French seized Louisiana from Spain, and due to Napoleon's lack of funds for years of war, they sold 2.6 million square kilometers of Louisiana to the United States for $15 million, equivalent to less than $5 per square kilometer. Why do we say that the history of the United States cannot be replicated, it is really the right time, the right place and the indispensable people.
In 1819, the United States acquired Florida from Spain through armed immigration infiltration, Texas, New Mexico and California through the Mexican War in the forties and fifties of the 19th century, Oregon from Britain at the same time, Alaska in 1967, and Hawaii in 1898.
By 1959, Hawaii, an island country occupied by the United States for nearly 60 years, officially became the 50th state of the United States. The U.S. has officially expanded to 9.37 million square kilometers, making it the fourth largest in the world.
Looking back at the process of territorial expansion of the United States, it is full of various ways of anti-human violence, such as deliberately waging war, forcible purchases, armed infiltration and occupation. In the short history of 246 years of the founding of the country, more than 200 military operations have been launched, and the most outrageous thing is that the United States Congress has only recorded five formal declarations of war, namely the 1812 American-British War, the 1846 Mexican War, the 1898 Spanish-American War, the 1917 World War I, the 1941 World War II, and even the Korean War was not recognized by the U.S. Congress as a direct declaration of war.
Since the beginning of the last century, the United States has still inherited its fine tradition and launched dozens of wars, but what is strange is that the United States has never invaded any territory from it.
The truth behind it
There are many factors involved, the first of which is the change in institutional concepts and the strict constraints of international law. After World War II, the system of various countries has been improved from the traditional feudal monarchy to the constitutional system, parliamentary system, and republican system. Autocracy has been completely submerged in the flood of history, replaced by a democratic core with a different name.
When the concept of democracy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the concept of world harmony will gradually be understood and accepted by the people.
In addition, the establishment of the United Nations and international law has also curbed the wind of aggression, and no country can infringe upon and annex the sovereignty of other countries, which is the basic norm for the smooth operation of the international community today. Although the United States is the world's largest power and one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, it does not have the courage to confront the world sharply.
The second is resources, the most valuable resource in the old era was land, but now economic globalization has changed this pattern. Although resources are still an important factor in development, for large countries, all kinds of raw materials can be purchased through normal international trade. And for developed countries, relying on raw materials to upgrade the economy is already a rather backward concept, and the development of high and new technology is the foundation.
The demand for raw materials will be reduced, and the demand for land will also be greatly reduced, and the same is true for the United States, which no longer needs land resources to improve its own development, and the existing land area is enough to meet the needs of development, so they no longer have the need and need to invade the land.
Then why does the United States still provoke wars and suppress other countries? The reason is very simple: Although the United States does not want land, it wants money for development and to consolidate the hegemony of the dollar.
What is dollar hegemony? A 100-dollar bill costs less than a dollar, but when it is printed, it requires $100 worth of goods and services from other countries. Mastering the hegemony of the dollar is equivalent to mastering the world's money printing machine, and the United States relies on military, economic, and technological power to stabilize the hegemony of the dollar, and they only need to continue to consolidate it.
The industry that consumes the most dollars is nothing more than the trade in resources such as oil, natural gas, and rare metals. The targets of US strikes in recent decades, including Syria, Iraq, Venezuela, and Russia, are all resource-rich.
The United States has achieved resource control over these countries through a series of means, such as supporting puppet regimes, military infiltration, and suppressing sanctions. As long as the demand for dollar consumption increases, the value of the dollar will continue to rise, and the United States can continue to print money without worrying about inflation, and the hegemony of the dollar can be consolidated.
But the premise is that these resource countries will not seek other currencies to replace the dollar, which will require constant US intervention.
Therefore, under the combination of various factors, the sustainable development of the United States no longer needs land, just like Mexico, based on the yearning for the high-welfare society of the United States, the referendum decided to join the United States, but the United States categorically rejected it, which is really a hot face on the cold ass.
Because Mexico's economic development is too backward compared to the United States, Mexico's per capita GDP in 2019 is less than 10,000 US dollars, and the per capita GDP of the United States is more than 60,000 US dollars, plus Mexico's total population of 120 million. The United States is a highly developed capitalist society, and it is not a poverty alleviation and relief worker, so why should it accept Mexico?
Moreover, Mexico's drug epidemic and out-of-control riots are notorious all over the world, and who would be willing to accept such a thorn in the thorn? If an oil-rich country such as Saudi Arabia has this intention, I believe that the United States will keep them at all costs.
Contrary to the U.S. waging war but not encroaching on it, Russia has a fanatical quest for territorial expansion, annexing the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
This is also due to the lack of Russia's own maritime trade, although Russia's territorial waters are vast enough, most of them are in the Arctic Ocean, the northern part of the Atlantic, and the northern Pacific Ocean, where shipping routes are backward and ports are scarce. Therefore, Russia urgently needs to expand its territory on both sides in order to obtain a longer coastline.
But territorial aggression is a thing of the past, and it is also an act against humanity that is spurned and regarded as humiliating. Only by respecting the sovereignty of every country and engaging in peaceful and friendly international trade is the only right way for future development.