[QUOTE=MRM;3464446]So the gauntlet is thrown down. . .

The great Asian powers turned inward and did not compete on the world stage for a milenia.


QUOTE]

The Chinese are still inward looking, and only with reluctantance have stepped on the stage to influence world events as a great power. The only rason they do so is because they realize that they need to do so because if they don't it effects them at home.

Stalin wasn't a Marxist, he was a despot and only had his own agrandizement as motivation. When Trotsky left in exile that was the end of the Communist Revoulution.

Germany only became a nation in 1870 under Bismark. Until then it was just a bunch of principalities better known as the Holy Roman Empire. As a collective force Germany was a force to be reckoned with. They wanted their share of the world markets and resources and were not to be denied. U might say they had feelings of inferiority to the Brits. So U might say that was the underlying cause of WW1 and WW2. The Germans started and fought 3 major wars in a 75 year period.

Napelon 1st was the prime mover in Europe for the spread of Nationalism in Germany and Italy

Fall of Roman Empire.in the West circa 450 AD (fall of the old order). Chaos in the West for centuries rise and spread of Islam from the Alantic to the Pacific in 100 years. Battles between Christianity and Islam for the soul of Europe until 1492 in Spain and circa 1600 in Eastern Europe. Rise of Monarchy and 2 major religions are the dominate themes in this period.

Magna Carta and then Guttenbergs Printing Press...leads to Democracy and rise of western technology which enables the West to dominate the wogs for the next 500 years. Followed by the Enlightenment and Reformation (subjection of the Church and religion to the secular) which leads to rising Nationalism (Joan of Arc set the stage in France)...

North America becomes home for the highest and best use of Democracy and Technology and with its GREAT land mass and abundant RESOURCES it is a no brainer for world power status. The USA is the culimination of Western Civilizations thought process which it has been imprinting on the rest of the world for the past 70 years unabated.

U might say the period of the Enlightenment and Reformation till 1990 and the fall of the USSR was a battle between Monarchy and or Despots and the forces of Democratization. Religion vs Secular in the West. Now comes the Secular vs the Sprit of Islam.

The problem with a general view of the flow of history is that you don't have to really know anything. Its only when one can recouncil all the crosscurrents and pieces of the puzzle that one can come up with a uniform view of things.