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Russia, imo, has been in the top for the longest.
They expanded rapidly, conquered a large, large portion of the world, united cultures, and have one of the strongest armies in the world.
Even in modern times, they're still expanding their borders, like their occupation of the Crimeas, their invasion of Georgia (not the US state smh) and other recent, or semi-recent, gains.
What do you think?
Some other close followers would be, from all time, the UK, France, Germany (though they lost a couple pretty big wars), and even Austria, which formed and held the Austro-Hungarian empire for a very long time, until the end of the first world war, where they were piece-mealed apart.
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No oriental countries have really formed any large, nor impressive empires and been able to hold on to them for any real length of time.
The Mongolian empire would be the closest, though it did collapse rather quickly after the death of Genghis, and even before.
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HarbyngerJoin Date: 2008-07-06
Post Count: 34677 |
1100 iceland
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HarbyngerJoin Date: 2008-07-06
Post Count: 34677 |
*I should probably correct that statement to "any capitalist country", which has yet to exist, so...
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SurgoJoin Date: 2011-01-11
Post Count: 2748 |
You do know that russia has been on the verge of an economical collapse for centuries now, right?
Most of their country is uninhabited and bare, poverty rates are higher than ever before, and all they do is bully their neighboring countries. |
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HarbyngerJoin Date: 2008-07-06
Post Count: 34677 |
Another country really close to being capitalist was the US during the 1800s, but that's a long time ago now.
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usa is filled with too many snowflakes and their safe spaces sadly |
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HarbyngerJoin Date: 2008-07-06
Post Count: 34677 |
yeah...
so, there's always hope that a capitalist country will emerge on Mars then.
:|
be the first one in history.
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Russia's national debt is at 158 Billion (USD).
Let's compare them to another large country, like the US.
Russia exports 3x less than the USA
Russia produces, as you said, with their largely barren lands, 8x less than the USA (9th overall).
Russia's population is 1/3 of the US.
Russia's average population percentage ranked below the poverty line is 12.7%
The United States' is 17.5%
Russia's unemployment rate is 5.5%
USA's is 8.1%
Comparatively, the US has performs much better in each category. However, the US has, also, much more useable land, many more people to work on said land, and a largely stable government for the last two or more centuries, with the only radical changes being those of the world wars, and large purchases of land that it then inhabited.
Russia has gone through large amounts of political and economic strife, including, though not limited to, two revolutions, one extremely disastrous world war, and two different dictators, the most notable of which was Joseph Stalin, all within the same two centuries.
The fact that Russia has held on to its territory, while simultaneously expanding outside of it, and keeping its government, excluding the 20th century, stable, speaks to its being one of the most powerful and, most definitely, longest lasting countries to date.
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VeratusJoin Date: 2013-07-30
Post Count: 1545 |
I would make the case for Rome. Rome was alive for a long time from 753 BCE to 530 CE. Rome was light years ahead of any of its neighbors in military strategy and technology. It influenced cultures, religion, and military strategy. The world wouldn't be the world without Rome.
oof |
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capitalism has both upsides and downsides
they, in a lot of cases, balance one another out
when America was close to being an entirely capitalist society, the country, simply looking at the numbers, was doing better than it had in a long time.
however, those benefits came at a cost, directly to the working man.
the average pay was low, the average unemployment rate was high, and the average population under the poverty line was higher than ever, rivaling that of the great depression
comparatively, with numbers adjusted for inflation, the average hourly pay for a worker was the equivalent of $3 in today's world
you try living off $3 a day rip
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the roman empire was absolute for a long time
it failed to conquer the entirety of Britain for a very long time, largely abandoning any hope with the construction of the 'wall' which separated roman britania from the true british held lands
it still has long lasting effects on our society, true
though, it did fall due to corruption and invading barbarian tribes from all directions, it definitely is one of the more important and over-looked countries due to its obviousness and horrifying fall from grace
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HarbyngerJoin Date: 2008-07-06
Post Count: 34677 |
that's because of government.
big companies forced government to do things like invent patents and copyright so that they could be unnatural monopolies.
Under a capitalist country, faced with competition because they have no government to protect them, employers would be forced to improve living standards because otherwise their employees would just leave an join a better company.
Something like Standard Oil would never happen because if you just buy the local oil company, move down the street and make another oil company with the same assets and then keep selling your companies to Standard Oil.
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SurgoJoin Date: 2011-01-11
Post Count: 2748 |
Why are you using the United States as a standard? We're currently the trash bin for the worlds problems domestic and abroad
also side note: I agree that you could easily make a strong argument for Rome being one of the toughest empires ever formed |
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s_olJoin Date: 2016-06-22
Post Count: 469 |
how the hell could you not list either rome or america in a thread like this
that should automatically disregard anything you said, but this one takes the cake
"Russia, imo, has been in the top for the longest."
they weren't even relevant until MAYBE the 12th century, 15th tops. beforehand they were literally just mongolian khanates, which craps all over your point that they "conquered a large, large portion of the world, united cultures".
and they didn't conquer large swathes of land, either. they colonized siberia. that's the literal equivalent of americans colonizing the west via manifest destiny.
as for modern day, there's no debate that they're barely a 2nd world country. nothing about their military is impressive
again im completely stunned that you failed to mention america (strongest nation in human history) or rome (strongest and most advanced for its time and the foundation of western society) |
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TyZiIIaJoin Date: 2013-07-10
Post Count: 677 |
germany
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I'm sorry, did you just overlook the whole $24 trillion debt, or how about the current social issues slowly polarizing the country more and more?
The rioting that went on when the president took office? Or how about the large amounts of racial violence taking place across the country?
Yes, statistically, the United States of America have been a powerhouse for production.
They've also, equally, been in the slums, as it were, for the same.
Production, economy, general social equality and stability, all subject to change quite often.
They're a great country, yes, but definitely not the best of "all time", nor truly even while in its prime, compared to other "prime-time" countries.
And, I used the US as an example to compare it to as large amounts of people take the US as the "top dog" in all ways, to simply show how Russia, in modern times, compared to one of the definite top 5 countries of the time.
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s_olJoin Date: 2016-06-22
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"it failed to conquer the entirety of Britain for a very long time, largely abandoning any hope with the construction of the 'wall' which separated roman britania from the true british held lands
it still has long lasting effects on our society, true
though, it did fall due to corruption and invading barbarian tribes from all directions, it definitely is one of the more important and over-looked countries due to its obviousness and horrifying fall from grace"
so an empire conquers the entirety of the civilized european lands, and then some, then civilizes those areas, and conquers all of anatolia, egypt, mesopotamia, ETC
but you denounce literally all of it because it couldnt hold on to britian and cite hadrians wall
you're an idiot |
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Killua_SJoin Date: 2013-04-24
Post Count: 883 |
in no era would I live in russia
literally bad tier country
;P |
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russia was conquered by the mongols during winter and lost a war to the japanese
only reason eastern russia isn't japanese land is because of the usa |
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you cite national debt like it matters all that much to a country like the united states
the dollar is still strong and the ruble is weak
most of the world's richest people and companies are based in the us
the us has the largest gdp in the world |
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yes, I denounce rome for having the position of the strongest country on the entirety of Earth yet losing it to pillaging barbarians, corruption, and general decay
the government itself was what set the country up for failure in the long term, promoting its own corruption simply by the way it was ran
its conquests are great, and I did not belittle them for that, simply their obvious and preventable loss of the vast territories which they had claimed.
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HarbyngerJoin Date: 2008-07-06
Post Count: 34677 |
I'd quote that but the whole tl;dr of what i was going to say is
"capitalism will fix everything. Government is responsible for everything that's ever gone wrong. I'm technically a minarchist."
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