Mearsheimer on Why the West Was Won

Mearsheimer's Offensive Realism relies on two general measures of power:  the share of a nation's economy in a region, and the size of its population.  A nation with a large (or relative equal) economy and large or (relative equal) population will attempt to make a bid for hegemony.  In 1800, America had approximately 5.00 million citizens, out of 14.26 million in the Western Hemisphere (5.7 million in Mexico).  America was surrounded to its West by the Spanish, and to its North by the British.  It's GNP constituted 37% of the total GNP in the Western Hemisphere.

What it did was systematically press West, killing, dominating and relocating anyone in its path.  It opened its borders, to bring in immigrants to people the territory it took.  It fought a civil war, because the United States was not about to allow a rival state seeking hegemony (or allied with a European great power) on its back door.  After it won its way West, it began a period of gunboat diplomacy, intimidating and even fomenting revolution to insure its dominance over the Western Hemisphere.

Much has been said about America's treatment of the Native Americans (and anyone else in its path) and we have to ask, what threat did the Native Americans pose?  In fact, the threat the Native Americans posed was that they were weak, and if America did not conquer them, someone else would come along, conquer them and threaten American security.

It was America's example that Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolph Hitler turned to in crafting their bid for hegemony in Europe.  The German bid for hegemony had nothing to do with ideology, or intolerance or a lack of political correctness.  Germany had developed a larger economy than its European counterparts, it was threatened on its East by Russia and Poland, to the West by France, to its South by Austria.  For structural reasons, it was destined to make two bids for hegemony in Europe, and only stopped when it was divided in two with thousands of American soldiers stationed on it, for its protection.

The bottom line is that anarchy and uncertainty of intention give rise to the city-state, the empire, and the nation-state, all manifestations of sovereign power.  Multiple sovereigns competing for limited space inevitably gives rise to warfare, and sovereign powers with greater populations and economies and wiser leaders ultimately triumph.  Because of these structural features, it is clear that to a large extent, political ideology, whether you are a liberal democrat, a Nazi, or a Communist, is completely irrelevant at least to the conduct of nations.  The only ultimate question for any ideology is whether it prepares your nation for the effective development, use and projection of military power.  Any form of human justice effectively ends at the national border.