John J. Mearsheimer

They wanted to be independent nation states.

What I'm telling you is that nationalism, this incredibly powerful force, was the number one reason

for bringing down these empires.

The second reason was that the economic benefits, once the Industrial Revolution comes, melt away, right?

Before the Industrial Revolution, we're in a world where commerce is of great importance.

You can exploit these colonies and they make a lot of sense economically.

But by the 20th century, by the time the Industrial Revolution is in full swing, these empires are basically an albatross around your neck.

India is an albatross around Britain's neck, in my opinion.

And you'll notice, just going to who the powerful countries are in the 20th century—

Germany, the United States, and Russia slash the Soviet Union.

The only one that has an empire is Germany, and it's a tiny empire that it acquires in Africa in the late 1800s.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

They're not a major imperial power.

So the three behemoths on the planet, Soviet Union, United States, and Germany, do not have empires.

Britain, France, Belgium,

They have empires.

And what good are those empires?

The economic benefits are small.

Yeah, they're not justified by the math.

And then go back to the nationalism part of the story, right?