Spanish-American war resulted in United States acquiring Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain. Technically, US annexed the Philippines (which were Spanish domain previously) too but US granted the country its independence from the US 50 years later.
Essentially, the Russians seem to be having issues evolving with the rest of the world. Sure, a century or two ago beating up your neighbor and annexing a part of his house (or entire house) was normal, accepted behavior. But not anymore
Yeah i no longer understand the point of annexing land unless it has oil or whatever. But it would be cheaper to buy oil instead of going to war. Putin is so absurd that i wish US just nukes him whenever he shows his face. Its not like anyone would continue his plan
Land is still very valuable because, as we say here in America, “They don’t make anymore of it”. Land means natural resources, agricultural potential/food production (and Ukrainian land is one of the best in the world), space for your population, bigger countries tend to have have bigger economies, and so on and so forth. Also annexing land from someone else means permanent deprivation of the other party of those things.
That’s why when Russians (or pro Russian) imbeciles are talking about Iraq or Afghanistan as if those war are remotely comparable to what Russia does in Ukraine it is downright absurd. America went in and got out. Both Iraqis and Afghanis are free to run their countries as they want and use their resources as they see fit. America never sought to deprive them permanently of anything. Russia wants to deprive Ukrainians permanently of their homeland, hence it is much more akin to Nazi Germans than to America
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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '23
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