1776, 13 British colonies located in North America drove away the British forces and the representatives of each state jointly issued the " Declaration of Independence ", announcing the establishment of the United States of America. After more than 250 years of development, the United States has become the world's only superpower , and has a far-reaching advantage in the fields of economy, military, culture, politics, etc.
Drafting site of the Declaration of Independence
However, there is no eternally powerful country in the world, and even the United States is no exception. After entering the 21st century, the United States is being chased by emerging forces represented by China, the gap in national strength continues to narrow, and the decline of the United States has become a global consensus.
So, will the United States quickly decline into an ordinary country? In this regard, we can take a look at the decline of the former world overlord, Britain and find the answer.
The Rise of Britain
1688, the British Empire launched the " Glorious Revolution ", established the constitutional monarchy system, and bourgeoisie stepped on the stage of history. With the advent of a series of technological achievements such as steam engine , Britain became the first country to enjoy the achievements of industrial revolution , and its national strength has grown significantly and has gained a lot of wealth through global colonial policies.
British steam locomotive
At the end of the 18th century, British colonies had spread across five continents around the world. At that time, British writer Horace Walpole proudly praised the United Kingdom:
"No matter at any moment of the day, there will always be sunlight above the territory of the British Empire!"
Therefore, Britain during the period of the world overlord was also called "the empire of 3, 3, ".
After entering the 19th century, after Queen Victoria 's efforts, Britain obtained the unprecedented golden period of development of . There are steamers flying the British flag on major routes around the world.
Victorian British
1850, Britain's steel production accounted for 60% of the world's total and coal production accounted for 50% of the world's total. It is the unshakable "world factory" . At that time, countries around the world needed to transport industrial raw materials to the UK and import industrial products from the UK. The whole world became the raw material supply place for the British Empire.
The decline of Britain
Just as the British were complacent about the glory of the "Empire that never sets", the second industrial revolution , which quietly came, was quietly launched in emerging countries such as the United States and Germany. In 1866, the German Siemens developed the world's first generator, marking that the Second Industrial Revolution, characterized by electrification, was about to replace the steam revolution.
German engineer Siemens
However, at that time, the British were very conservative in their attitude towards the electrical revolution -after all, there were already a large number of industrial organizations that depended on the steam industry.
In order to save the cost of changing steam engines into generators, British capitalists tried their best to hinder the electrification revolution in the UK, which eventually led to Britain's second industry falling far behind the United States and Germany. This is a sign that Britain's status as the "world hegemon" has begun to loosen.
By the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Britain had lost its identity as the "factory of the world". In 1900, the top five industrial output value in the world were the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Russia, among which Germany and Britain were less than 1%, and completely surpassed Britain five years later.
It is precisely because Germany believes that the decline of Britain and France are not worthy of the vast colonies that Germany became the source of World War I when the colonies had nowhere to be divided.
War One Battlefield
After the outbreak of World War One, Britain sent 3.3 million troops to participate in the battle on the European continent and finally won the victory. However, the battle cost the UK a very painful price, causing more than 1.6 million soldiers casualties and 10 billion pounds of economic losses.
After the end of World War I, the once wealthy British Empire actually changed from a creditor country to a debtor country, owing US to a foreign debt of up to 400 million pounds . From then on, Britain lost its position as the center of the world, and the United States replaced it as the center of the world.
World War I ended with the countries signing treaties
immediately followed World War II completely drained the little foundation left in Britain . Although Nazi Germany failed to land on the British Isles, it still seriously destroyed the British industrial system in the subsequent years of air wars, causing Britain to lose more than 150 billion US dollars.
When World War II ended, Britain could not even control many overseas colonies inherited from the "Empire of Sun Never Setting" period, and could only acknowledge that these colonies were going toward independence.
When the Cold War of the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain no longer had the best global voice and could only maintain a great power in the United States' camp. From World War II to today, although Britain still sits in the seat of the United Nations' "Five Permanents", it and France's "brothers in distress" have been classified as "lower two permanent members", and are not at the same level as China, the United States and Russia, at all.
Big Ben is a landmark in the UK
Summary of the history of the decline of Britain
From this period of rise and fall in the UK over the past hundreds of years, we can see that the starting point of the decline of Britain is actually missing the Second Industrial Revolution. When emerging countries such as the United States and Germany surpassed them, the gap between Britain and them continued to widen until the outbreak of war and "returned back to their original form."
But we also noticed that even though Britain has declined for more than a century, today's Britain is still among the "Five Constant Permanents" and is one of the few developed countries, which obviously does not meet the definition of "ordinary country".
can be seen that as long as it is a country that once sat on the throne of the world hegemony, even if it declines, it will be an extremely slow process of - at least for the lifespan of a generation.
London City View, UK
So, for the question of "When will the United States decline into an ordinary country", we can actually answer: the decline of the United States is the historical law of and . A moving world will not have an ever-powerful overlord.
But even if the United States is declining, it will still maintain its position as the number one power in for a long time. At least our generation will not see the day when the United States becomes the so-called "ordinary country" - after all, Britain has lost the title of "world hegemony" since the end of World War I, but it is still one of the world powers that cannot be ignored.
US White House
Of course, for a declining overlord, war will accelerate this process. For example, if China successfully implements regional anti-intervention operations against the US military in the Western Pacific in the future, then the maritime power system on which the United States relies on will suffer a huge blow to , but such failure may not shake the US's foundation.
US Navy Fleet
North America has unique geographical location . Even if the United States is completely decoupled from the Eurasian continent and "entertaining" in North America behind closed doors, it is enough to maintain an international image with a more presence than the United Kingdom. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, the United States will not decline into an ordinary country.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-