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"Americans believe that the world revolves around them".
Yeah, but my point is, the world media is obsessed. If I go to the BBC or CBC site right now, they usually have stories about the US. I don't Americans want all the attention (me speaking as a US citizen), but I think the world itself gives it to them a lot by choice.
Most progress in the sciences comes from Europe, honestly, particularly Germany for physics and England for chemistry and biology. Heisenberg, Einstein, Planck, Hertz- all Germans. From England you have Maxwell, Darwin, Newton, Hawking, Joule, Hooke. Europe also had the benefit of being able to do stem-cell research over the last few years.
None of this is really relevant though, because science doesn't happen in a vacuum.
Yeah, but my point is, the world media is obsessed. If I go to the BBC or CBC site right now, they usually have stories about the US. I don't Americans want all the attention (me speaking as a US citizen), but I think the world itself gives it to them a lot by choice.
Well, as a Brit, I see our country having to cower to Obama to keep ourselves protected.
This is a question that I have thought about as I hear politicians call America the world's only "indispensible nation". If we were to dissappear tomorrow what would happen to the rest of the world? Could they survive without the United States to lead them, help them and show them the way?
After all think of all the things we have given to the world- the lightbulb, TV radio, miracle drugs that cured many diseases such as polio, the telephone, the car, the computer. So many things the world needs, we invented.
And then consider all the wars we have fought for the rest of the world. We have been at war almost all of our history and really only Japan ever directly attacked us. The rest of the wars have been fought for others including Veitnam, Iraq, Korea and, I would argue, Germany in WW2 was fought more for the benefit of France and England than for us.
Do you think the world would live without the USA?
Japan attacked the U.S. and several days later Germany declared war on the U.S.
How's this KevK imagine the world without you first then we'll go from there.
No offense but leave the rest of us out of your hypothetical.
Ok, lets just say the US dropped out of existence in 1776... Countries held captive by the imperialistic European powers (especially Spain) would never have been inspired to rebel. The French revolution would likely have never occurred, meaning Liberalism would never have taken hold in Europe (Democracy, not the modern term 'Liberal'). The US was largely isolationist after 1815, so I doubt much would change until roughly 1860. Thanks to the American Civil War, ships made out of iron and steel, and not wood became the norm in just a few years.
Not much would have changed in WWI, since the US joined in the last year. The war probably would have dragged on for years more, with no side gaining ground on the other. Without the US to mediate negotiations between the Allies and Prussia, the latter would have suffered even more economically, politically, and socially, giving Hitler an even better case against the Allies in the 1920s. I also wonder if aircraft would have been developed enough at this point.. Seeing as it was two Americans (the Wright brothers) who successfully flew a heavier-than-air vehicle.
Imperial Japan would have expanded throughout the Pacific Ocean unchecked, expanding where ever they pleased. Possibly even carrying out their invasion of Australia, given time. Doing so would give the British a two front war they could not afford to fight. Since the US is not present to negotiate with Stalin and the Soviets, the USSR could swing either way, probably to whichever side was winning. Without food, rail equipment, weapons, and other materials from the US, the British would not have lasted nearly as long as they did. Before the US formally entered the war, the Germans were fighting a three front war - And winning. Can you imagine if they had reached Iraqi oil or taken the Suez Canal? Without the US to supply and eventually fight along side the Allies, the Axis powers had a chance to win WWII, Hitler probably would have completed his first atomic device, and the world would be a completely different place.
The Cold War probably would have been "fought" between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Japan possibly remaining neutral towards the two others..
Suffice to say, even without all of the American inventions and innovations, a lot of things would be different. Keep in mind that the Great Depression caused a lot chaos, despite the fact that the US was largely isolationist. In this era of globalization, if the US suddenly dropped off the map, there is no telling what would happen. Can not really say if the world would be a better place, there are plenty of countries out there that could form a modern day axis.
Yes. The world would survive without the US. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Would the world be the same?
Without a shadow of a doubt, no.
It'd be extremely self centered of Americans to say the world wouldn't survive without them. Humanity adapts, situations change, etc. However, it'd be extremely foolish to say the world would be the same without the USA.
Most progress in the sciences comes from Europe, honestly, particularly Germany for physics and England for chemistry and biology. Heisenberg, Einstein, Planck, Hertz- all Germans. From England you have Maxwell, Darwin, Newton, Hawking, Joule, Hooke. Europe also had the benefit of being able to do stem-cell research over the last few years.
None of this is really relevant though, because science doesn't happen in a vacuum.
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