>>12090366>why hasn't the age of conquering continued?Because after the second world war, America decided to take on the role of a global police officer.
This worked fine for quite a while, but Russia and China (the only other countries of real importance) haven't stood still: they've been taking over the world in their own way:
Russia by solidifying its own country by developing weapons and gaining a monopoly on gas which most of Europe is dependent on (making Europe almost completely incapable of responding to military action).
China, too, has been solidifying its own country by ruling with an iron fist. This allowed them to create an entire empire built on cheap labour and taking on other countries' trash (almost every Western country is completely dependent on China).
While America may have been enough of a threat to keep the peace, that threat is almost entirely gone now.
America had largely become a joke thanks to its people and governance slowly degenerating.
People aren't able to think for themselves thanks to teacher unions keeping the quality of education low, almost all jobs pay too little for people to live their lives, people have grown lazy and fat thanks to modern luxuries, etc, etc, etc.
Russia took notice of this and decided to test America's ability to govern the world by taking over a small piece of land and aside from some "outrage", America did absolutely nothing.
In more modern times, both Russia and China have played roles in destabilizing the trust of America's citizens in their governments: Marxism led to doubt and anger, while China is pushing activists to take action (look up on who is supplying BLM/Antifa with weapons).
If a civil war starts in America, America'll no longer be capable of policing the world, allowing Russia and China to do whatever they want again.
And I'd bet my life on the fact that whatever happens, it won't stop at just taking an island this time.
