Could it be possible that our explosive growth as a power and our exurberant participation in both WWI and the design of the peace to follow inspired in ultra-nationists in Germany and Japan the ideas of carving empires out of China and Russia to create a base for going on to conquer the world?
On thing I remember from reading Konrad Heiden's "Der Fuhrer" was how the image of the emperor on horseback, Napolean Bonaparte, inspired in the politically divided German nation ideas which led to unification.
I have also been wondering if the participation of the US in WWI and the framing of the Versailles Treaty did not emphasize to the world the potential here for world dominating wealth, power, and culture to the extent that the German and Japanese militarists knew they had to go for world domination or inevitably be dominated by the US.
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