this video is made possible by curiosity stream and nebula watch another brand new full-length companion video to this one in my ongoing modern conflict series that explains the entire course of the longest war in american history the 20-year long u. s invasion and occupation of afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 along with 16 other full-length episodes with more than five and a half hours worth of combined content covering over a dozen other major 21st century conflicts all of which you can access by signing up for the curiosity stream nebula bundle deal for less than 15 a year at curiositystream. com real life lore the united states of america is the most powerful empire that has ever existed in human history without even being the absolute largest in terms of overall territory no other empire has ever been as capable of so thoroughly enforcing its will across the rest of the planet economically the united states has continuously remained the world's largest economy since the 1890s and is the only country that has ended every single decade with a larger economy than it started with for the past 150 years the us dollar is the primary reserve currency used by most of the world's nations america's government is the second longest continuously run regime in the world and despite making up just five percent of the contemporary human population the united states controls around 30 percent of the entire planet's wealth and produces 20 of all global manufacturing and complementing america's tremendous economic might is also her unprecedented military strength the us military alone represents nearly 40 percent of all world wide military spending the us navy represents half of the worldwide naval fleet the united states controls more than 750 overseas military bases across every conceivable theater of the world enabling america to attack any threat anywhere on the surface of the planet in less than 48 hours and while there are many factors that contribute towards this unprecedented global power and influence of the united states the biggest reason for it and the true source from which all american power stems is the fact that the geography and the geology of the north american continent itself is just insanely overpowered from a civilization building standpoint in fact it's so outrageously overpowered that it's not even really fair to any of earth's other civilizational start points and it was almost inevitable that any civilization that began where the united states did regardless of people or ideology would have eventually emerged as the dominant global superpower so allow me to explain in depth why that's the case to begin with the core geographic reason of america's global power and the core of the north american continent itself is almost certainly the mississippi river and the vast basin that surrounds it wedged in between the high rocky mountains in the west and the low appalachian mountains in the east interconnecting with the illinois ohio tennessee red arkansas and missouri rivers as well most of the tributary rivers that feed into this enormous system spanning one third of the entire continent begin at relatively low elevations which effectively means that the majority of the basin's rivers are calm and absent of any obstacles like rapids and have therefore been easily navigable for thousands of years without the need for any advanced technology expensive development or infrastructure the most important thing to understand about the mississippi river itself is that it is the longest navigable river in the world meaning that since time immemorial anyone could essentially sail a boat carrying supplies or people from the gulf of mexico into the mississippi's mouth and up more than 000 kilometers deep into the north american interior before hitting the river's only natural waterfall here which without coincidence is exactly where the twin cities of minneapolis and saint paul was settled the navigable section of the mississippi river from these waterfalls down to the delta in the gulf of mexico is more than three times the length of the rhine in europe and a third longer than even the danube europe's second longest river navigable rivers like the mississippi or the rhine are tremendously valuable to generating economic activity because they are substantially cheaper to use as transportation of goods and people than land-based infrastructure roads and railways require not only high initial costs to construct but high ongoing maintenance costs to keep them functioning and running as well whereas rivers are already there and are basically just free to use the only costs involve creating ports and boats to carry stuff up and down them and as a result of that shipping products by water as opposed to land is anywhere from 10 to 30 times less expensive in the modern 21st century era and civilizations who have more navigable rivers will be able to retain substantially higher amounts of profits from all the capital that they'll be saving on transportation costs this fact instantly makes the mississippi river as the longest navigable river in the world tremendously economically valuable to anybody who controls it farms and factories built along or nearby the 3 000 kilometers of its banks between the delta and the gulf of mexico and the waterfalls at minneapolis st paul are capable of cheaply exporting their products further downstream and out into the world ocean toward global markets but the mississippi river itself is only the main stem of the overall greater network of navigable rivers found across the greater mississippi basin granting settlements as deep into the interior of north america as pittsburgh cincinnati minneapolis chicago sioux city st louis memphis muskogee shreveport and more to effectively become oceanic ports all capable of exporting their various products cheaply down the mississippi river network towards the gulf of mexico but it isn't just this uniquely vast system of internally navigable rivers within north america that give this continent such an advantage to commerce it's also the fact that around much of north america exists another highly unique geographic feature that cannot be found anywhere else in anywhere near such a useful pattern the many many barrier islands that exist in an almost continuously uninterrupted chain for more than 4 800 kilometers around three-fourths of the u.
s gulf and east coasts from the southernmost tip of texas where the rio grande empties into the gulf up to the chesapeake bay that harbors washington dc and baltimore in effect these countless low and flat islands have transformed what would otherwise be 4 800 kilometers of exposed coastline into a network of protected shielded bays that can be effectively utilized as a sort of oceanic river relatively navigable all the way from brownsville texas to baltimore maryland and since the delta of the mississippi river empties out directly into this further navigable network it means that goods have been able to be cheaply reliably and quickly transported from all throughout the north american interior to all across the gulf and east coasts now for hundreds of years when collectively added together the internal rivers of the mississippi basin and this external intracoastal waterway wrapping around the gulf and east coasts account for nearly 25 000 kilometers of combined navigable waterways which is not only more than the rest of north america combined but more than the rest of the entire planet combined the end result is the greatest natural transportation system to be found anywhere in the world an enormous network of freely available riverine super highways that causes 90 percent of the lower continental 48 united states to be within just 240 kilometers of an easily navigable waterway and it was all just effectively given to the united states more than two centuries ago back in 1803 when the french decided to sell all of it for about 340 million dollars in today's currency valuation and then the power that this system of natural navigation offers the united states is even further exacerbated when you consider that it spans across what also just so happens to be the largest contiguous stretch of arable farmland on the planet as well the american midwest the westernmost portion of the midwest located within the rain shadow cast by the towering rocky mountains of the continent is dry but temperate and perfect for growing wheat like ukraine and southern russia while the central portion is temperate and humid perfect for growing corn and soybeans today an area more than twice the size of france is under till within the midwest alone and as a result this region produces nearly a third of the entire planet's supply of corn and soybeans and more than 150 billion dollars worth of agricultural produce overall per year and all of this enormous agricultural land happens to also roughly overlap with the world's largest network of easily navigable rivers it is a perfect natural recipe for an agricultural superpower to develop from and when further considering the fact that the intracoastal waterway network further services the transportation needs of everything from texas to maryland the colombian snake rivers flow through the agricultural zones of the pacific northwest and the san francisco bay and sacramento river help out within the central valley of california you can quickly see that with very few exceptions the vast majority of all of america's agricultural regions are within just 240 kilometers of a navigable waterway to the ocean enabling food grown across the rural parts of the continent to easily and cheaply be transported to the same continent's urban population centers in a way that simply no other continent on the earth could ever match and we're still pretty much just at the beginning here of explaining the sheer scale of north america's geographic advantages towards maritime power and commerce because you also have to consider the many many natural indentations of the continental coastline itself that creates many of the greatest natural oceanic deep water harbors in the world in order for a natural harbor to make a good port they must really have three crucial ingredients deep passages for shipping enough resources in the immediate hinderland to support cities that can support the port and plenty of coastal frontage area when only considering natural harbors across the world that possess all three of those critical factors the top three largest of them are all within continental north america and controlled by the united states out right the chesapeake bay between maryland and virginia the san francisco bay surrounded by california and the puget sound of washington state these three are arguably the most impressive natural harbors found anywhere on the surface of the earth while the chesapeake bay itself all on its own has a longer coastline than the entirety of india combined when added together the entire coastline of the modern united states is well over three and a half times the length of the entire african continent despite the fact that africa itself is more than three times larger than the united states in terms of overall land this means that the united states coastline on the atlantic gulf and pacific has a greater overall potential for ports than any other country on the earth bar none and can even fit in significantly more ports than entire other continents are capable of and then there's also the fact that with a little modern civil engineering the united states acquired a second enormous internal navigable waterway in the mid 20th century the great lakes due to the fact that the great lakes are naturally full of rapids like you know niagara falls and the fact that the connections between the lakes often freeze over during the winter they were never naturally navigable on their own all the way through history until the very late 1950s when a series of locks and canals were completed by the americans and canadians now the great lakes serve as a complementary internal water transportation system to the mississippi basin and intracoastal waterway enabling even further cities deep within the continent to effectively become oceanic ports from duluth to detroit to cleveland and buffalo and then there's the fact that through a series of artificial canals the mississippi basin system and the great lake system are now connected with each other and barges can effectively freely navigate with their cargoes in a giant circle around the entire eastern united states but great as it is the mississippi basin does contain a couple of critical geographic vulnerabilities that can be exploited by america's enemies and both revolve essentially around new orleans the most strategically important city in the entire united states because it serves as the gates between the entire mississippi river super highway network and the intracoastal waterway and gulf of mexico should new orleans ever fall into enemy hands or be somehow destroyed the link between the greatest river network for transportation in the world and the global ocean would be blocked and the whole system along with the american economy would effectively break down and there are theoretically two arguably easier ways to accomplish this besides from capturing or destroying new orleans itself the first way is to take advantage of cuba you see cuba is probably the most strategically valuable piece of the north american board that the united states doesn't outright control or have significant influence over this is because of the way the island juts into the gulf of mexico creating two straits that all ships coming back and forth through the gulf and the greater world ocean have no other choice but to pass through the florida straits in the north or the yucatan strait in the south all on its own cuba is too small of an island to ever leverage the strategic position to threaten the trade of america's underbelly between new orleans the mississippi basin the intracoastal waterway and the outside world but when placed under the sway of a major power from another continent it absolutely can be as nearly happened during the early 1960s when the soviet union began placing nuclear missiles and troops there cuba can hypothetically be utilized as a springboard to attack the united states most significant geographic advantage and as a result washington has been actively carrying out the longest trade embargo of modern history against the island for more than 60 years now desperately hoping to bend its people towards its will and to prevent any large hostile foreign power from ever becoming too established there the other incredible weakness is almost paradoxically the mississippi river itself which has desperately wanted to change its course now for decades for thousands of years now the mississippi river has always meandered around over long periods of time and its delta has shifted across various positions along the louisiana gulf coast back in the 1970s the river would have naturally shifted course away from its current path beginning in a location that hardly anyone will have ever heard of the small town of vidalia louisiana from here the mississippi would have begun flowing into what's currently known as the achafalaya river down to a new delta in the gulf about 120 kilometers southwest of present-day new orleans had this been naturally allowed to happen the entire mississippi river would have diverted completely around the cities of baton rouge and new orleans leaving their river-based infrastructure stranded and their people without any source of fresh water and creating a new delta for the river in an area that is presently essentially the middle of nowhere the end result would have been an economic catastrophe for the united states of unprecedented proportions and so in anticipation the united states army corps of engineers constructed what is probably their proudest accomplishment the two billion dollar old river control structure within the small town of vidalia which artificially forces the mississippi river to unwillingly continue down its historical path towards baton rouge and new orleans where all the infrastructure built up over centuries is actually located but should this structure ever somehow fail in the future the mighty mississippi would almost immediately and violently snap courses to flood down the atchafalaya towards the gulf instead flooding everything in its path and effectively destroying the utility of all america's industrial and agricultural processing infrastructure between baton rouge and new orleans and temporarily shutting down most of the mississippi basin's super highway system until new infrastructure could be built down in the new delta these weaknesses though are essentially only hypothetical the fact is that the land where the united states is placed in is the best suited location in the entire world for a civilization to develop into a colossally capable maritime empire for all the reasons that i've already explained and for many more for example there's also the fact that for centuries now the united states has been capable of developing within this continental size land mass without the fear of any regional rivals developing to either the north or the south in canada or mexico largely because the geography of both these regions to the south and the north can not support nearly as powerful nor as populous an empire as the land in the middle that is presently controlled by the united states after the united states invaded conquered and annexed half of mexico back in the 1840s the largely mountainous lands that mexico was left with didn't contain even a single naturally navigable river within the interior at only a single good natural port on the coastline at veracruz in addition what agricultural areas mexico had left were relegated within the many valleys crisscrossing in between the mountains leading them to be highly separated from all the other agricultural areas of the country which is completely opposite of the enormously interconnected agricultural geography further to the north in the united states and then in canada the vastness of the canadian shield a cold region where glaciation over eons of time has stripped the area of most of its usable soil making it useless for agriculture stretches across half the entire country between the great lakes and the arctic ocean and separates the small agriculturally productive core of canadian civilization around toronto and montreal from the prairie provinces and british columbia over to the west without any internally navigable rivers between them to rely upon like much of the united states there is still to this day only a single road that connects all four of these provinces west of the canadian shield to the core of canadian civilization to the east of the shield and this means that inevitably the four canadian provinces west of the shield are significantly more economically integrated with the united states to the south than with the rest of canada to the east because it's far easier to actually travel south and access america's vastly superior transportation network therefore as the fate of geography would have it the core region of north america's insane productivity and easy transportation is also one of the most secure locations of its kind anywhere on the planet far removed from any potential major rivals or threats and this in essence is the secret sauce of america's enormous geopolitical strength incredibly easy transportation within the core combined with incredibly difficult transportation beyond it not only can no rivals easily develop within north america to threaten the core but two enormous oceans separate the core from all other continents as well essentially transforming the united states into an island empire but of continental scale oceans are incredibly difficult for invading militaries to travel across in 1940 with the domination of continental europe adolf hitler had to cancel the invasion of england across the english channel because it was proving too logistically difficult for the nazi war machine to pull off and that channel is only 33 kilometers wide at the narrowest point the shortest distance between the united states and europe is nearly 5 000 kilometers across the open ocean and it's even further away from asia across the vast and empty pacific so as a result the core of the united states has never been invaded by a hostile foreign power in more than two centuries since the british in 1815 because it's largely impossible to actually do so especially when considering that the united states also controls half of the naval tonnage of all the world's navies and dominates the entirety of the world's oceans and even if somehow a foreign power was capable of miraculously overcoming the largest most capable and most technologically advanced navy in human history and then transporting and supplying hundreds of thousands to millions of troops across thousands of kilometers of open ocean and landing them on the beaches of north america it still wouldn't even really matter because the north american continent has essentially all of the resources required for modern civilization and modern militaries located deep within it this is the other huge key to the power of the modern united states north america's raw geologic potential for many decades the specter of overdependence on other nations and other continents for their energy resources towered over the minds of america's most strategic planners though it was once the largest producer and exporter of oil in the world throughout the early 20th century and provided nearly six out of seven of all the barrels of oil used by the allies of world war ii america's days as a major oil producing nation were believed to be ending by the mid-1970s as demand rapidly outpaced production in the post-world war ii boom economy by 1973 with a country importing more than a third of its entire oil supply from abroad the united states was suddenly especially vulnerable to international oil embargoes coming from opec the organization of petroleum exporting countries consisting of countries across the middle east africa and venezuela at that time the countries of opec represented half of all the oil production in the world and their decision to embargo the united states due to their support of israel during the yom kippur war shut them out from that half of the world supply and caused american energy prices to skyrocket later on after the 1979 islamic revolution in iran the united states became shut out from that country's entire rich supply of oil as well and as the demand for oil within the united states continued to increase throughout the 20th century and with domestic production never capable of catching up america found itself in a position where by 2005 the country was importing a whopping 60 of its oil supply from abroad an amount that is percentage-wise highly similar to what china imports today as a consequence american foreign policy was for decades in the later 20th century dominated and constrained by this heavy dependence on the outside world for its oil supplies but beginning in the early 21st century a revolution in the oil and gas industry back at home would permanently change this reality with profound and still unknown consequences technological and economic innovations in drilling technology and techniques now known as fracking were finally unlocking the ability of oil and gas companies to economically crack the hydrocarbon code of shale rock which had remained elusive for more than a century beforehand beginning in texas as recently as 1998 within a region known as the barnette around dallas fort worth the news that shale rock could be economically harvested for oil and gas began to rapidly spread like wildfire these new shale discoveries revealed that texas possessed many of the largest oil and gas fields known anywhere in the world like the eagle ford in the south that became the fifth largest known oil field just behind the enormous bergen field in kuwait and an area located in the permian basin of west texas known as the strawberry and wolf camp that is now considered the second largest oil field in the world remaining only behind the mighty gavar field that forms the backbone of saudi arabia's oil might in the span of just a single decade this new reality and these enormous discoveries rocketed texan oil production fold to make the state a larger oil producer than every single country in opec besides saudi arabia itself and today texas alone produces 45 of the united states's entire domestic oil production and if it were an independent country texas would be the world's fourth largest oil producer behind only the rest of the united states saudi arabia and russia and of course it's not just texas that produces a ton of oil and gas now for the united states there was also the shale play in the backend field of north dakota this suddenly transformed that isolated central state into america's second largest oil producer only behind texas there's also the vast oil and gas fields in the offshore of the gulf of mexico the north slope of alaska and what could ultimately prove to potentially become the largest natural gas field ever discovered anywhere in the world the enormous marcellus field one to two miles beneath the ground spanning across upstate new york pennsylvania ohio and west virginia all told these new discoveries tripled the estimated natural gas reserves of the united states between 2002 and 2019 and with a massive network constructed of new gas pipelines stretching across the border into mexico accompanied by a series of liquefied natural gas or lng export terminals across the gulf coast maryland and alaska the united states suddenly transformed out of nowhere into the second largest exporter of natural gas behind only the russians and by 2018 what had previously been unimaginable back in the days between the 1970s and 2005 finally happened the united states had once again for the first time in more than four decades surpassed both saudi arabia and russia to regain its title as the world's number one producer of oil a position that the united states will now almost certainly retain for all of the foreseeable future and perhaps most importantly the vast shale basins of the united states are all located within the interior of the continent and nearby to major navigable water-based transportation routes and the network of u. s oil and gas pipelines and refineries is simultaneously so vast they span across nearly the entire continent as well effectively this has largely made the united states an empire that is mostly capable of true energy independence no longer reliant on the complicated geopolitics of the outside world for supplies necessary to power modern civilization for economic reasons the united states continues to import large amounts of oil from abroad but primarily from within the north american continent she so thoroughly dominates canada and mexico alone provide for around 60 of all the imported oil used within the united states today no longer can oil embargoes from any coalition of nations outside of north america threaten the american supply of energy and nor can a naval blockade of america's energy imports that primarily come in from over land from other parts of the continent's interior combined these geographic and geologic strengths add together to make the united states the most formidable global power of the 21st century and human history but it doesn't mean that the country is completely immune to external attack and without weakness even though the united states is now largely energy independent in terms of oil and gas the country continues to maintain an extremely heavy presence across the oil and gas rich middle east not because it directly relies on oil and gas from there for themselves but because the resources of the middle east are absolutely central to the wider global economy at large and vital for many of the united states most significant allies in east asia any disruption in the flow of oil and gas out of the middle east through the strait of hormuz would be incredibly destructive to the world economy a world economy that the united states has found itself increasingly integrated and interconnected with today as much as 30 of the entire modern u. s gdp and nearly 40 million american jobs stem from this interconnected web of trade with the rest of the world which means that to a large extent the united states is in fact still dependent on the rest of the world and especially the region of the world that most powers it the middle east this is why in 1991 decades before the shale revolution the united states was so swift to destroy the army of saddam hussein after he led iraq into invading and conquering neighboring kuwait by seizing control of kuwait saddam found himself personally in control of more than 20 percent of the entire world's supply of oil known at the time after mobilizing his army on the borders of saudi arabia immediately afterwards it appeared clear that he was going to invade that country as well and seize control over their oil fields catapulting him into possession of 45 of the world's known supply of oil which effectively would have made saddam hussein the master of oil's price and supply across the planet unwilling to tolerate that threat to the global economy the united states mobilized the largest coalition of nations ever seen since the second world war and went to war against his army liberating kuwait and pushing iraqi forces back across the border but by doing so the united states committed to basing large numbers of troops in saudi arabia nearby to the front line and they didn't leave following the war's conclusion combined with the us's financial support for the saudi regime the harsh economic sanctions imposed on iraq following the end of the war and the staunch american support for israel these events all contributed to osama bin laden and his al-qaeda organization to attack the united states directly in the deadliest single attack ever perpetrated against the american heartland on september the 11th 2001.
in response the united states initiated the war on terror and subsequently invaded the landlocked mountainous afghanistan where the local taliban regime was shielding bin laden and al-qaeda and so began what would ultimately transform into the longest war in american history that would last for the next 20 grueling years and ultimately after more than two decades of fighting that cost more than two trillion dollars and over 140 000 lives across the country the united states ultimately decided to withdraw almost exactly one year ago back in august of 2021 culminating in an ultimate taliban resurgence that swept over the country and catapulted them back into power yet again as with vietnam decades before it the war in landlocked mountainous afghanistan ultimately became a decisive foreign policy defeat for the united states and explicitly showcased that even the most powerful empire in human history has its limitations as the war in afghanistan encompassed more than eight percent of the entirety of american history and span across more than two-thirds of my own lifetime and many other americans and afghans alike this conflict is perhaps the most critical and important of all 21st century wars for us to understand in both countries how and why it began why it lasted for so long and what lessons can we learn from it both within america afghanistan and the rest of the world but unfortunately if i made an in-depth video about the war in afghanistan here on youtube the many disturbing violent and controversial details of discussing a very recent and horrible conflict would cause the video to become demonetized and age restricted which i completely understand and believe is appropriate but it ultimately means that youtube's algorithm would never promote the video to you and there's just simply no way that you would ever see it here and that's why instead i created yet another full length companion video to this one in my ongoing modern conflict series that's about the exact same length as this video that covers the entire course and explanation into america's war in afghanistan from the very beginning in 2001 to the very end in 2021 and uploaded it directly to nebula which as i'm sure you've probably heard by now is home to tons of exclusive ad-free content like my entire modern conflict series with 16 other full-length videos containing more than five and a half hours worth of additional combined content that you can go and watch right now covering more than a dozen recent major wars and conflicts that'll help you stay up to date on what's going on in our world and why from this video covering all of the events leading up to russia's recent decision to invade ukraine to this one covering the ongoing chinese genocide of the uyghurs in xinjiang this one covering the 2008 russian invasion of georgia and many more of course the reason why all of these videos are only available on nebula is because they just wouldn't ever work here on youtube and would never be able to be viewed because of the way this site works in relation to highly controversial and sensitive recent events on the other hand nebula is a totally different platform without an algorithm and without any ads it's just a platform about great and unique content made by great and independent educational creators with plenty of other unique exclusive bonus projects from other creators you probably already know like real engineering's incredible world war ii era battle of britain and logistics of d-day series and multiple hour plus long documentaries from wendover productions the best way to get access to nebula and all of this incredible exclusive content is absolutely through the truly amazing curiosity stream nebula bundle deal and with its current sales price it's less than 15 a year to get full access to both sites and curiosity stream has some pretty awesome stuff that you're definitely going to enjoy as well like afghanistan 1979 an hour-long documentary covering the entire history of the soviet union's invasion and occupation of afghanistan throughout the 1980s explaining in depth all of the background information that you need to know before watching my video on nebula covering america's invasion and occupation just over a decade after the soviets left i really can't recommend it enough and i genuinely don't know about a better deal that exists anywhere in streaming you get two streaming sites both with content you'll actually watch and all for less than fifteen dollars a year at the current sales price but what's even more signing up will actually help countless independent educational creators beyond just real life lore so please make sure to do so right now by clicking this button that's here on your screen right now which will take you directly to curiositystream.
