Certainly long before the Louisiana purchase, and other westward expansion. Russia is less of a prison of nations that the US is.

  • Pseudoplatanus22 [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Nah, if America didn't use slave labour it never would have become as powerful as it is. Maybe if they immediately began building communism, but the population would be half the size it is today

    • DinosaurThussy [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If the plan was to immediately build communism, the mercantilist monarchies would have never funded the expeditions to cross the sea

      • Pseudoplatanus22 [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Let's suppose they abolished slavery and hit the communism button straight after the revolution. They already would have had a population of Immigrants, ex-slaves, and natives to work with.

        • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          while we're at it what if the Romans had instead of building an empire had decided to build communism

          • Pseudoplatanus22 [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            What if the primordial lungfish that crawled out of some ancient sea was an-prim?

        • Nagarjuna [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          The point of the revolution was to allow for westward expansion. There was 0 chance the revolution could have been cool. The only successful revolution in US history was carried out by slaves during the civil war.

      • Pseudoplatanus22 [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Depends on your definition of great, I suppose. If by great you mean an industrial powerhouse, the home of modern medicine, a place where living standards were super high, then no. All of that was enabled by slavery and exploitation.

        It wouldn't have been any greater than any other country outside of the imperial core.