"Thus, I'm talking about the tide of world socialism which swept the globe during the 20th century, raping the planet and murdering TENTHS of the population: Bolshevism, Nazism, Communism, and general modern liberalism in the West. All of this was permitted by the Civil War's consolidation of the free and independent states, into a single sovereign empire. "
Boy is this an exercise in self importance (US ego as self) Our civil war was a blip on the world scene.
More like yours is an exercise in the small-minded, myopic view of history as a series of isolated incidents, rather than continuous stream of cause-and-effect. National authority over the states, had HUGE impact on world events in the 20th century, since it basically stemmed from the US becoming a socialist emire-- compared to a union of FREE AND INDEPENDENT states-- touching off a global blaze of world-socialism in the following century.
Other than a forum for rapid arms development and the resultant change in troop deployment and tactics. WE Made No real difference to the Real Power of the planet.
What? "No real difference?" The US controlled more wealth during the 20th century, than most of these other WWI nations combined! And this wealth was likewise consolidated under federal control, thanks to the Civil War! Otherwise, every state would have remained a sovereign nation unto itself.
Unless you're under the delusion that war has nothing to do with economics, then it's clear that the US had a MAJOR impact on Europe due to both military and economic intervention (WWI, the US and world bank, WWII etc).
I don't like saying this, but you REALLY need to start doing your homework, since you're WAY off on all of this.
Europe (where all other afore mentioned ism's bloomed) was in it's slow progression from the French Rev. The industrial revolution and the ability to create wealth outside of the land. through in the various wars and consolidations that occurred there after our civil war. Then the Big one where lives were not only wasted but on a level of loss that was beyond rational consideration. This coupled with world depression created a backlash to the Old systems and turned power upside down. Now if you said there was no First World War then you could say there would be no Russian Rev and Bolshevism would not have the traction sto survive and there would not have been a treaty of Versailles (sic) and no punishment of Germany and the National Socialist could not have rose to power. I guess you have to consider the world by trying to remove events and then consider the change. If you removed OUR civil war would the events in Europe have changed, I think not.
You can say that again-- you DON'T think. If the states had remained sovereign, then US involvement in WWI would not have occurred, due to the lack of a central bank, a federal income-tax, or a federal draft-- or the ability of the US to force individual states into a war against their will by federal fiat, drafting their citizens to fight on foreign shores in foreign wars which held no US interest etc.
Rather, states could have NULLIFIED the federal income tax, bank and draft-- or SECEDED ENTIRELY.
However, the Civil War made the Union into an empire-- an EVIL empire.
This is really pretty obvious, since many states considered seceding over the war of 1812-- which other states had provoked, embroiling them in such entanglements.
If the US had stayed neutral in WWI rather than getting into it via special-interest meddlings-- mainly JP Morgan, and chairman Benjamin Strong of the US Federal Reserve-- not to mention one President Woody Wilson, the biggest dictator since Abe himself-- then WWI would have ended much sooner, and with much less cost.
Also, you seem to treat the Great Depression like some sort of natural disaster or "act of God," and completely remove the Civil War as the primordial cause. By consolidating the states under quasi-socialism, the central bank and Federal Reserve systems were created-- which previously had been blocked by anti-federalist forces within the various states.
Afterward, however, the states had no sovereign power to oppose such usurpations by absolute supreme central control over the now-national economy, and so the Federal Reserve system was able to commandeer the econonomy, having full power with zero accountability-- even Franklin said "the king's cheese is 9/10 wasted, but no matter, 'tis made with the people's milk."
This was precisely the case with the Great Depression, which even liberal economists now admit was caused by the Federal Reserve and socialized fiscal-policy.
If not for the Civil War, this could not have happened, since the states would have remained sovereign-- hence preserving free-market forces which would have precluded such a calamity via forcing natural corrections in the market and economy-- corrections that were instead sold out to political expedience by the federal government, resulting in tapping out the entire US economy to junk-loans at home and abroad, basically hanging the world-economy by a thread, particularly after the devastation due to US intervention in WWI.
And threads break.
As such, the devastation which created both Bolshevism and Naziism-- as well as the socialist upsrisings in Japan-- would have never occurred, if the US had remained a union of sovereign nation-states.
You, like too many, are clearly illiterate with regard to politics and their various economic underpinnings-- but rather seem to take a "Forrest Gump" view that life is a box of chocolates, and "things just happen," i.e. history is controlled by an idiot.
On the contary, the US easily controlled more wealth during WWI than all the other nations combined; this is precisely WHY the Great Depression caused such global havoc, since they were so indebted to the US bank; as such, when their loans were called in, entire economies collapsed into socialism-- particularly due to WWI war-debts, which were so exacerbated due to US involvement prolonging the war.
The Franco Prussian war would still have occurred which was the festering wound that could be seen as the prelude to the big one. But take the First World War off the table and most of the ism,s would not have gained traction. The elements of socialism, communism and National Socialism have been with us as noted for years but they would have remained factions and not forces if not for the first world war, not the American Civil War. IMHO JB
Um... NO. Remove AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT, and socialism wouldn't have gained traction. All offensive wars are fought for profit; hence, US involvement turned it into a DEFENSIVE war on more than one front, by fiancing continued action far beyond the perceivable gain on either side, and turning a termination by conditional cease-fire, into one by unconditional surrender.
Simply put, the war cost a LOT MORE due to US involvement-- because it COULD cost more, once the US started shelling out.
It only stands to reason that wars only last so long as at least one side perceives an economic benefit of some sort. As such, the US intervention in a purely domestic matter involving the balance-of-power between European nations, completely tipped this balance against Germany-- and in favor of Lenin and Stalin.
This permitted Bolshevism to succeed-- likewise, this and the devastation caused by the Great Depression also fueled socialism, and the Third Reich rose as a counter-measure to the threat of Soviet invasion in German-bloc nations... and history proves that, in spades.
It would be quite foolish, to suggest that Soviet plans for world-conquest began only after WWII-- particularly since socialism is inherently imperialistic, consuming everything in its path; this is, in fact, the reason for the US involvement in WWI. While popular myth holds that the US was "helping its allies," the reality is that these "allies" got themselves into trouble, and the US was simply expanding its power by using the war as a means to expand its influence and claims overseas, thus likewise engaging in masked imperialism.
So to recap: without the national authority achieved by the Civil War, world socialism would not have transpired. The Civil War was, after all, a socialist coup by the Republican-nee-Whig party, which was likewise socialist; and so it's no surprise that this touched off a blaze of socialism that engulfed the world.