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Well, South American countries made multiple attempts to put their eggs somewhere else and then found their eggs suspiciously smashed and their chicken appeared to have been replaced by a fascist dictator in the morning and when they asked what happened to the eggs they were put in a plane and quietly dropped over the ocean.
So there was that reason.
For more info, read Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Yes, but also no. America has put a lot of work into breaking every other basket.
America spent about a hundred years burning baskets everywhere until theirs was the only one left
Yeah, it all built out of WW2. After WW2 pretty much all of Europe was in shambles. Most major cities had been bombed at least once, many far more than that. Infrastructure all across the continent was destroyed. The industrial capacity was destroyed. Armies had marched, pillaged, and destroyed first out of Germany across Europe, then back across Europe into Germany. The US was uniquely positioned as the only world power that didn't suffer massive economic devastation from the war. In fact, due to stuff like the lend-lease act and massive industrial mobilization for the war effort, the US was experiencing a massive economic boom while Europe and east Asia were in a depression.
But in the aftermath of the war the Cold War set in. The USSR and Allied powers (led by the US) drew lines in the sand and established their areas of influence. The US instituted the Marshall Plan in Europe which essentially just shotgunned money at western Europe to rebuild as much as possible as quickly as possible. This had a massive positive economic impact on western Europe, but it also ensured that so much of Europe would be dependent on American products and companies. If your rebuilt power grid was made with American parts, then anything new would have to be compatible with that, ensuring your country is a long-term customer of American products. At the same time, the US and western Europe created NATO as a military pact against the Soviet Union, which further strengthened the western alliance. Again, with the US as the only major western power with a larger and more powerful army after the war than before, the US took the leading role in NATO.
Another major factor that most people tend to overlook was the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944. This was an effort to stabilize the global economy and monetary system after WW2. It said that the US would readopt the gold standard (we had abandoned it during the war, and would later permanently abandon it in the early 70s), then every other western-aligned country would use the US dollar as the basis for their currency. Think of it like a gold-standard, but instead of gold, they used US dollars. This gave the US enormous economic influence because everybody needed US dollars to maintain their economies, and the only way to get them was to do business with the US.
This created the conditions that the US expanded and exploited over the second half of the 20th century to cement ourselves as the dominant western world power. Through colonialism and Cold War dynamics, the US and USSR forced most of the global south to pick a side, and often forced regime change when they didn't like the choice countries made.
Then the Soviet Union fell and the US was the only global superpower left remaining. Over the 90s and early 00s a lot of formerly Soviet-aligned countries hitched their wagons to the US since it was the only game left in town.
So, yes, much of the rest of the world put their eggs in the America basket, but it wasn't recently, it didn't happen all at once, and, at the time at least, there were other factors that went into those decisions.
Yeah. It was the easy thing to do so everyone did.
There is such a thing as third world/nonaligned
America spent a century burning all the other baskets and demanded that everyone store their eggs in the American Basket™. All resistance was met with violence openly or covertly.
After WW2 the world was split into 3 categories: first world (Western nations), second world (the Eastern bloc) and third world (everyone else)
America and the USSR both vyed and destabilised a lot of nations to solidify their place as super powers, America gained its power from the British when its economy shifted to war production to support them.
America made a lot of smart moves, like establishing the IMF so the US Dollar is used for international trade, and America has historically honoured all debts through the IMF.
So lots of nations had to kowtow to America to an extent if they wanted to have decent international trade.
Under Trump America is giving up its soft power for isolationism, and you can see a large portion of the world trying to shift away from Americas system through things like BRICS or incentivising different energy systems instead of oil
There is a lot more to this, but I think that's at least a start to your question
If it wasn’t for even more autocratic nations filling the power void (China…Russia) the degradation of America’s importance would be a great thing. But unfortunately I think the rest of the world is unprepared to defend themselves with America’s sudden retreat into itself.
The EU needs to take up the mantle of being the protector of the democratic free world.
Brazil, India, and South Africa might instead, creating a world where democracies and autocracies can get along fine with a tacit mutual non-intervention agreement
Not going to happen. Europe is barely holding together as it is, and Russia/China are using just as much energy and resources in undermining it as they do in the US.
At best Europe can stick somewhat together enough to form a working defence and foreign policy for its own territory and near neighbours, but it is never going to be a global force.
They have enough on their plate protecting themselves. Effective militaries are not made in a few years. (Not without shifting your whole ass economy at least.)
Africa and South America and Asia better keep their eyes peeled.
I just want to compliment you for spelling and using "kowtow" correctly
I think its "capitalists", " communists", and "neither"
Surely there were second-world countries that didn't align with the Soviet Union
America demanded the role. America took the role and hoarded it.
Once I got temporarily banned from reddit for saying something like this 😭
Much of the world has had the choice of putting your eggs in their basket, or having all your and your descendants eggs broken forever/taken away. Same thing with Europe.
Yes, at least for the Europeans that is very much the case. The Germans, for instance, were always morally appalled by the more overtly violent aspects of US Imperialism, but were perfectly happy to hide under their coattails and let them do the dirty work. The deal was that Europe world accept US hegemony in exchange for military protection. Nobody could ever imagine that the US would just rip up that deal because it will definitely hurt them more than everybody else.
For further reading on this agreement it's called the Bretton Woods agreement if anyone is interested.
Bretton Woods wasn't about military protection. It was about stabilizing the global economy and monetary system. It absolutely gave the US a ton of economic influence, but it didn't have anything to do with military protection. The Soviet Union even took part in the negotiations that turned into the Bretton Woods Agreement, although they chose not to sign the treaty.
The US' military hegemony came out of NATO, the Cold War, and the Marshall Plan.
you are asking so many questions in so few words. but i'm not knocking you for that. just be aware that the full answer to that misleadingly small question is going to require a substantially larger answer.
The US bombed the shit out of much of the world's manufacturing in WW2, and after the war they filled the void and dominated the global markets.
When there was competition that threatened US profits after the war, they assassinated heads of State who didn't enact US policy.
Eggs in a basket??? Jesus!!! How much is THAT going to cost???
Because it was safe and stable with a history of being safe and stable. It was easy to lose that reputation, and it will be difficult to get it back.
Then: "Who would be insane enough to take on the Donnager?"
Now: "I didn't think we'd lose"
(The Expanse Reference, sorry I love making references)
Kinda fitting tho, since the Donnager was
spoiler
being boarded by the enemy, but they manage to self destruct the ship before it was taken over.
Except, now, we're dealing with a Protomolecule scenario, and the UNN Agatha King is about to spread it to the entire system.
Maybe someone in the white house should do the same. Initiate the self distruct sequence before the rest of the country (state and city governments), and the rest of the world gets taken over.
Kill the protomolecule before it kills us.
America never suppressed it, it is considered the most right wing western country out there, and there is no left that people seem to believe, center right at most. It was only a matter of time, with the help of Russian propaganda that USA became just like RU, since alt right Christians had significant stranglehold on politics for decades. Half of the time USA has been under their control, with the help of DINOs. They just have a veneer of progressivism, as a way to hide behind
America made damn sure the world put its eggs here. We've always been the villain.
Its duty?!
The US has no mandate to meddle in international affairs, any more than a bully in grade school has a duty to stop smaller bullies from picking on their own victims.
The US has never been an international savior, it's the only country in the world to have dropped nuclear bombs on civilians.
I think every country has a duty to its people to fight fascism. I don't think that means military occupation but there are other things. If we learned anything from WWII being isolationists allowed the murder of millions of jews.
But I'm not here to argue with you so please do not respond.
What other things, specifically?
Imo fascism is a natural consequence of hate and apathy. Introspection by individuals and willingness to change are how you overcome those issues. Governments can't force people to empathize but perhaps better education and less superstition can help.
One of the major things that got us here was disinformation/misinformation. I believe in free speech, for sure. I don't think that means everyone with a gripe should be platformed. I also think we needed to do much better protecting our data. One of the main reasons the algorithm works is there are no protections for individuals data. Breach after breach. Whistle blower after whistle blower. They weren't being dramatic. We all became test subjects and what did big tech do with what could otherwise be described as ground breaking sociology reseach? Seize power.
Everyone, everywhere, has a duty to stop fascism and help their fellow man, regardless of what ultimately insignificant speck of a human decided to put a line on a map.
Fascists within?
After the 20th Century it became clear that war could spread anywhere at any moment and destroy vast swaths of people and nature indiscriminately.
The world had no choice but to ally with really big baskets. The USA was the most obvious choice given their lack of hostile landgrabs unlike China and Russia.
did the rest of the world just put all its eggs in the america basket?
No, you don't throw your eggs into a basket when the basket is foo far away.
It's quite the other way round. Imagine the North American continent drifting away from all other continents at the same time, and at an increasing speed.
This hasn't been caused by the orange problem. It was observable several years earlier. But when they decided to afford their orange problem for the first time, it increased the speed significantly. And now it is increasing again, and both speed and acceleration increase.
I mean, if theres (positive) acceleration then speed is increasing. Acceleration and jerk are increasing
Jerk, yes, that's the word I was missing. Jerk just didn't want to come to me.
Usually because of coercion tbh. Do you think we just sell our shiny militech?
The world? I don't think so, it was mostly their allies I think. America actually suppresses people deviating from the norm, they are trying to dismantle BRICS because of it represents a alternative to the dollar.
BRICS represents an aspiration to have an alternative to the dollar.
Even that will get America fucking with you.