China might rise as a superpower, and the US might shoot itself in the foot with many policies, but it's hard to undermine the US's best geography in the world.
I would personally never bet against the US.
14. Global Buffers
The US has contained all alternative superpowers:
• Monroe Doctrine➡️No enemies in America
• Co-opted Europe in WW2
• Buffer vs Russia: Europe + Alaska
• Buffer against China: 🇯🇵🇰🇷🇵🇭🇦🇺🇳🇿🇹🇼
13. Desert Mountain Barrier
Mexico is more threatening: Bigger population, close to the Mississippi Basin
But the border is much narrower than with Canada, it's desertic, mountainous, and Mexico is much more exposed to the US than vice-versa
The US co-opted Texas for that reason
12. Ice Barrier
Canada is too cold to host a big population. This pushes its population south, which connects all of Canada's population centers to the US more than each other, making it impossible for Canada to be a US enemy
11. If that were not enough, mountain ranges add further defense. It's impossible to invade the US, but even if an invasion was possible, it would be stopped at the mountains
This would have been impossible:
All of this is extremely well defended by:
10. Ocean Barriers
The two largest oceans in the world are on each of the US's coasts, protecting it from hostile neighbors
9. Energy
The US is the 1st producer of both oil & gas!
This is thanks to its amazing reserves, product of an inland sea in the Mississippi Region millions of years ago!
8. Natural Coastal Ports
Rivers + rugged coast+ big tides➡️Some of the best natural ports in the world, protected from sea storms in their estuaries
7. Intracoastal Highways
Ships can travel Boston➡️Mexico barely touching open seas, instead protected by chains of islands that cover nearly all of the US’ Atlantic coast.
Mississippi+intracoastal waterways➡️more internal navigable waterways than the rest of the world combined!
6. Great Lakes
The US has another amazing, navigable system, the Great Lakes
They reach the ocean through the amazing St Lawrence River, all infrastructure financed by Canada!
Luckily, Great Lakes & Mississippi Basin are connected via Chicago!
5. Political Integration
The Mississippi Basin is highly connected, trades more, exchanges more culture, and unites more politically
Compare with East Coast river basins: Rivers flow parallel to each other➡️13 original colonies
It's not a coincidence they fought a civil war:
4. Mississippi Trade
Many huge rivers on flatland➡️the US has more navigable internal waterways than the rest of the world combined!
This is extremely useful because moving goods over water is 10-30x cheaper than overland
3. Farmland
The water flows from these mountains calmly, because the entire region is extremely flat
Many calm rivers on flatland➡️the Mississippi Basin the world's largest contiguous piece of farmland.
➡️The US is the 3rd food producer and 1st exporter worldwide
This is caused by the funnel effect of its 2 big mountain systems: The Sierra Nevada / Rockies to the West, and the Appalachians to the East
2. The Mississippi Basin
It's the 4th largest drainage basin in the world and occupies 40% of the contiguous 48 US states, touching 32 of the US’s 50 states. 11 US states directly take their name from it.
1. Size
The US is the 4th largest country. It spans an entire continent, reaches two oceans, and is big enough to be a geographic heavyweight in the world
Never bet against the US:
Ppl think its biggest strength is its institutions, the dollar, entrepreneurship... But one of its biggest assets is its geography 🧵
There's a million more things to say about this, from the role of malaria & yellow fever, to the economic importance of cotton, immigration patterns, & more. You can read them here
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/climate-ca...
Next: how all this predetermined the US of today
Follow for more!
Why does this matter so much?
Because if we understand history as a mechanism, the result of massive, hidden forces like climate, crops & economics, we can stop blaming each other for terrible past deeds, and instead steer humanity in the right direction, together.
In contrast, Southern crops took lots of labor and were hard to automate, so slaves were crucial to grow them profitably. This locked it into slavery.
Slavery also pushed wages down, so few immigrants moved South, condemning to be outgrown by the North, which imposed abolition
In sum:
Climate made Northern crops cheap to grow & easy to automate. This made farmers richer, fostered entrepreneurship & industrialization, & made slavery superfluous.
This also made the North grow faster, as most immigrants moved there
So the South invested in slaves vs machinery. The more it did, the more its entire economic system depended on slavery. In 1860, the value of slaves was higher than the capital of all US railroads, factories & banks combined!
In the 1800s South, labor was the biggest cost of farming, so slavery made growing cotton, tobacco & sugarcane profitable. That's why all cash crop areas (including the Caribbean & Brazil) had so much slavery
So, little labor for Northern crops:
➡️A single homestead could work a big farm
➡️Ppl literally reaped what they sowed, so really cared about improving yields
➡️It could mechanize, requiring investment
➡️Machines made Northerners more productive, increasing wages
Why does this matter?
Because this was the source of slavery
It existed in both the North & South in 1800, but it disappeared in the North over the following decades because it was not necessary
And cotton mechanization was too hard for 1850:
• More mud and uneven soil (for water draining) were too hard for machines
• Cotton boll fibers are delicate, requiring human hands
For similar reasons, tobacco, rice & sugarcane require much more work than wheat, barley & oats
Meanwhile, cotton grows in hotter & humid climates, which means more pests, more weeds, more waterlogging, and so more soil prep
Cotton bolls open at different times, requiring several runs to pick them
These features also made them easy to mechanize:
• Machines didn't get stuck in mud
• They didn't need parts to adapt to different plant sizes
• Grains are tough and can stand a beating
The soil where wheat, barley, & oats grow is easier to prep because climate is drier and cooler, so crops have fewer pests and weeds, and there's no waterlogging
Grains grow to a similar height and at the same time, so they can all be reaped together.
They're easy to store.
Eg, cotton took 4x more work than wheat!
Wheat took ~35 hours of work per acre (h/a):
• Preparing soil: 13h/a
• Reaping: 14h/a
• Threshing: 8h/a
Cotton took ~130 h/a!
• Field prep: 70h/a
• Harvesting: 60 h/a
How is that possible!?
