So, I've been recently looking at the High Renaissance / Post - Reformation stages of Europe, and their expansion into the New World. This area has expanded into North and South America, and the particular interest of this subject, The United States. The United States formed from Great Britain's, then expanded into the current global power that it is. Out of all of the massive territory that was gained, very few prominent global powers emerged. (An example of a prominent global power would be China, Great Britain in it's heyday, and the European Union is poised to be one, Soviet Russia, etc.)

Yet, the question I ask, is "Can this happen again?". Can there actually be a new country, on this planet, that emerges as a global power? When I say new country, I'm meaning from a new territory, that's independent of the structures of other countries. For instance, this doesn't mean a giant political shift in the US, or the country right next to China becoming powerful, riding on the back of China.

I mean, a completely, new, built in the middle of nowhere, global power. Like, it comes out of Uganda, or Brazil. Somewhere that isn't particularly prominent, emerges as a new state, that's locked and loaded, ready to take on the world, with the condition that it's within the next, say one-hundred years. Could it happen, and the issue that is more pressing on my mind, is what would it look like?

There is no more territory to conquer in the planet, save for Antarctica and the North Pole. Both of which are barely inhabitable. So, that ultimately prevents conditions for a power like the United States to emerge, because there's no difference. Places like Asia already have Russia and China as major players (Although after the collapse of the Berlin wall, much less powerful, but prominent still), which could economically force any other country out of the picture. Europe has the European Union, which basically secures all of the states as "As-Is". The United States wouldn't tolerate something coming up in it's territory, or Canada, or Mexico.

That leaves us with what? Africa, and South America. Both places are plagued with fighting and chaos. It would seem very difficult, then, to establish a new country there. The territorial disputes would seemingly rip any new emerging state to pieces.

The moon also seems like a good option. Except, such an endeavor would be a huge financial undertaking. Also, what would be the implications of such a new country? Would it be accepted by the world? How would trade commence? Would there be any territorial disputes there as well?

So, I leave the question with to you. With the current international settings, can a new prominent country emerge? If you feel like expanding, what would such a country look like, and what are your guesses as to why it would be created in the first place?

quote:

Originally posted by bluedemocrat:
Currently, there are no countries that pose a realistic threat to the United States' status as the world super power.

Some may claim that China does, but the economic growth that has occurred there only appears so impressive because its economy had been poor and stagnant for so long. Such growth cannot and will not be substained because of the severe lack of human rights in China. Additionally, the vast majority of China is rural and unindustrialized. The growth has only taken place in cities and has thus only affected a very small fraction of the country's people.

Well, at the rate China is trying to impress the world with all the new laws on being nice to customers and such, it's hard not to imagine that China might turn into a mini-US..er...US's younger yet bigger sibling...

Currently, there are no countries that pose a realistic threat to the United States' status as the world super power.

Some may claim that China does, but the economic growth that has occurred there only appears so impressive because its economy had been poor and stagnant for so long. Such growth cannot and will not be substained because of the severe lack of human rights in China. Additionally, the vast majority of China is rural and unindustrialized. The growth has only taken place in cities and has thus only affected a very small fraction of the country's people.

china is the only nation on earth close to becoming a world power, like the US. Russia is done. Africa and south America... i dont think so, unless they used magic. And imperialism? I dont believe that will happen is so much force as it did with Britain because the world would be up in arms about it. Look at Iraq... that's not even imperialism and the world hated it anyway. If america started colonizing weaker latin american countries, there would be worldwide retribution.

I think that obviously space is one of the big question marks out there depending on the next-hundred years how thigns take place. It's possible one of these small poverty-stricken countries from Africa or South America could become a large power even though, it would take a ton of resources and political power. The country there would have to purge itself of everything bad, somehow become developed like the US or Russia or China or something. It'd be interesting to see it happen though.

I doubt it; the conditions nowadays are nothing like they were back then. The only possibility of this happening would probably be farther in the future with the colonization of other space forms.

The countries splitting and power gaining we read about in text books extend over hundreds of years too, so I doubt it would happen now.

You also have to think about the fact that back then they didn’t have as much technologies as today. It's a lot easier for a government to control its citizens, so I doubt a strong government could break apart. Maybe some smaller countries could form a larger one and slowly rise in power.

It's hard to say, we just have to wait and watch.

New countries generally form as a result of some reordering of borders or because a country relinquishes a colony or splits apart, like Namibia, the former Yugoslavia, or the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But even all those happened quite a while ago. It could happen again, I suppose.

But even if a new country does form, I doubt it will become very powerful.

quote:

Originally posted by riskbreaker86:
there are a million possibilities, one you missed out is the chance of a middleast coalition of states, a sort of trans-arab unity.

Maybe macedonia will rise and reform the byzantine empire? unlikely but you never know....

The problem with those scenerios is that neither of those regions have very large food-production capability compared to the US, China, or Europe. Without that you're dependent on other areas for basic sustience in order to maintatin equivilant populations (and therefore production levels, military, and intellectual capital).

there are a million possibilities, one you missed out is the chance of a middleast coalition of states, a sort of trans-arab unity.

Maybe macedonia will rise and reform the byzantine empire? unlikely but you never know....